Ghost Story
by tryny
Summary: Jack encounters a mysterious woman searching for answers. Together they uncover a conspiracy. Can Jack finally find a way to deal with the ghosts of his past?
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: GHOST STORY

**Author**: trynity7

**Disclaimer**: The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-1, the Goa'uld and all other characters who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. Partnership. This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author. © September 19, 2003

The album Brand New Day is by Sting and © 1999 A&M Records, Inc.

**Category**: Hurt/Comfort, Action, Drama, Smarm, Angst

**Spoilers**: Anything up to The Devil You Know, some specific mention of Children of the Gods, Cold Lazarus, Forever In A Day, Jolinar's Memories, The Devil You Know, Touchstone, and Enigma.

**Rating**: PG-13 for some language and mild gore/violence

**Pairing:** Jack/OFC (this is a very smarmy pairing – not exactly what one would call ship, but I thought I'd mention it)

**Season: **3 – set just after The Devil You Know

**Author's Note**: Thanks to M&M for the phonetic translation of Arabic. Not an easy language to translate to English! Thanks also to Alex for his demolitions expertise. This is my first fanfiction ever. The songs are from Sting's album, Brand New Day (lyrics are really in the liner notes). Special thanks to my husband for reading and encouraging. Without him I would never have had the guts to write it, much less share it!

And finally special thanks to Holly for being the first stranger to read this and give me an informed and honest opinion of it. Her advice has made me a better writer. Her support has given me deeply needed encouragement. And her ideas have given me future stories!

**Archived at:** Jackfic, Heliopolis, and StargateFan

**Summary**: Jack encounters a mysterious woman searching for answers. Together they uncover a conspiracy. Can Jack finally find a way to deal with the ghosts of his past?

**Ghost Story**

"Would you be willing to follow me back to my lab? There is something there I would like to show you," the burly doctor said in hushed tones. His companion finished off a third glass of wine and ate one more bite of mousse. It had been a delectable dinner. The beautiful Israeli woman sat back, relishing the wonderful feeling of fullness from their delicious meal. She caught sight of her reflection in the glass of the window. Her dark hair was piled on top of her head with curls splashing around her face. It had been nice to have her hair done in a salon and to put on an expensive dress. Not something she was used to in her years of military service.

"Yes, I would be happy to follow you back to your lab. Shall we buy another bottle and drink it there?" She said in a flirty voice, thinking he meant to try and seduce her as payment for his cooperation.

"I have had enough wine," he said seriously. "There is more to what I must tell you, Captain." She put her napkin down and met his eyes. Their conversation had been more informative than she'd hoped. She felt like she was close to getting whatever clue she needed to find out what had happened to her Emil. Maybe the remaining bits were to be found in the lab.

"Let's go." They paid and left a tip on the table. She got into her car and he got into his. He pulled into the narrow street and she pulled away after him. She saw what looked like a car she'd seen on the way to the restaurant pull out a significant distance behind her and continue in the direction they were heading. She decided that they were probably being followed, but what remained to be seen was if they were being followed or if _she_ was being followed.

They arrived at a small building with a loft. She followed the warm-faced rotund man up the stairs to the loft. The security to the entrance of the building was somewhat light, but it was a different story for the lab. There was a retinal scanner and a carded entry. Once they were inside he turned the lights on. She was impressed with how modern it was. Clearly he was well funded.

"Here is what I wanted to show you." She stepped around to the counter where he was standing, her high heels clicking noisily on the tile floor. There on the metal counter was a casing that contained what appeared to be the detonator of a bomb. It contained a timer and wiring, but it was not hooked up to anything that she could see. A few feet from the timer was a larger plexiglass container divided in two parts. One side contained a substance that looked very much like mercury. The other side had what appeared to be a light shining behind it. It glowed a lovely blue color and appeared to be active within its current liquefied state. It swirled and mixed in a mesmerizing pattern.

"What is this?" She pointed at the clear plexiglass container.

"It is a weapon," he told her.

"What does this have to do with Emil?"

"He was the first to study this substance here. He gave it its temporary name: SE201b." He pointed at the mercury-looking substance. "It was found by a team of men who are able to travel to other worlds. They are attempting to obtain technology to protect the Earth from a threat that is so terrible we are not even allowed to know what it is."

She scoffed at his words. It sounded as though he believed them, but surely this was some ploy to attempt to impress her. "You are joking."

"No, Captain, I am not." She studied the substances before her, but could not find the source of light that caused the one to glow.

They talked for another twenty minutes or so. He told her other things that she found impossible to believe, but at last she got her one final clue. Colorado Springs, Colorado. There was a mountain there where many secret things were going on. Maybe she would only find that Emil had been buried beneath it, but she would go to that mountain. She would find out what had been done to him.

Suddenly they weren't alone. Two men entered the room and from the looks of things they were in mortal danger.

"You have something that belongs to us," one of the men said in American English.

"You have not been honest with me," he replied. "You took this woman's husband and never returned him. Am I now to believe you will pay me what you owe and let me live out my days?" He put the timing device directly behind him and reached carefully for one connector that would link it to something wired beneath the metal table.

"It is of no consequence to us what you believe. You have done the planet a great service. But telling this woman of it will prove to be your undoing." The gray-suited man closest to her looked at her and said with deadly cold, "And ultimately yours as well, but we may yet have use for you."

*****

Jack had the CD player turned up in his truck. He'd been working so hard even his hair felt fatigued. This week was the first full week he'd gotten away from the base in more than a year. He'd been injured (again) on Netu and the experiences of that particular mission were not settling into their thoroughly-buried compartments kept for just such unloveliness with the typical snap he was accustomed to. After so many years of unpleasant experiences he expected to be able to compartmentalize without difficulty and without delay. He wanted desperately to drown out the noises (voices) and images burned into his brain with music, and then very soon beer. Many beers.

The mountainous pass to his house wound steadily up The Horn. Dr. Fraiser had required that Jack carry his cell phone with him and he'd been requested to check in every 24 hours, which he'd refused. General Hammond conceded the latter knowing just which battles to pick with his 2IC. Several years of working with the colonel had educated him on the best machinations for getting certain things accomplished with the man when he was being disagreeable.

He was listening to Sting. Jack had never really listened to his music after he went solo preferring instead the man's music from his years with The Police, but Daniel had given him a CD recently that had a song on it that meant something to the young man. He hadn't told Jack what song it'd been. He simply handed him the CD one day and said, "This is a really great CD. It's got a couple of really great songs…one in particular. If you like a little jazz you'll like this." Then he'd turned and walked out of Jack's office without another word about the unexpected gift, ever.

Jack had taken the disc home before listening to it. He was a little taken aback by the earnestness of Daniel's voice when he handed it to him. There was something he was trying to say without actually saying it. The colonel had become very good at reading his friend's body language when the brilliant doctor's skills as a linguist failed him, which they always did when he tried to talk about something intensely personal. But this particular moment had been an enigma to Jack until he got home and listened to a few songs on the album. It wasn't the first song, but he didn't have to wait long to figure out which song it was that had pierced Daniel's heart. The second song was called _Desert Rose._

_I dream of rain, I dream of gardens in the desert sand_

_I wake in pain, I dream love as time runs through my hands_

_I dream of fire, these dreams are tied to a horse that will never tire_

_And in the flames, her shadows play in the shape of a man's desire_

_This desert rose, each of her veils a secret promise_

_This desert flower, no sweet perfume ever tortured me more than this_

_And as she turns, this way she moves in the logic of all my dreams_

_This fire burns, I realize that nothing's as it seems_

_I dream of rain, I dream of gardens in the desert sand_

_I wake in pain, I dream of love as time runs through my hands_

_I dream of rain, I lift my gaze to empty skies above_

_I close my eyes, this rare perfume is the sweet intoxication of her love_

_I dream of rain, I dream of gardens in the desert sand_

_I wake in pain, I dream of love as time runs through my hand_

_Sweet desert rose, each of her veils, a secret promise_

_This desert flower, no sweet perfume ever tortured me more than this_

_Sweet desert rose, this memory of Eden haunts us all_

_This desert flower, this rare perfume is the sweet intoxication of the fall_

Jack had listened to that song three times in a row. It was an intense composition. There were lyrics in the liner notes and he'd read the lyrics the second time around. There was no doubt in his mind that this song captured Daniel's thoughts in lyric and melody where the loss of his wife was concerned, with its sitars and driving string and profoundly Arabic essence. Sha're had been the garden in the desert sand of Daniel's life. No doubt Daniel felt she was little more than a shadow, so short a time did he have her. After the third listen Jack decided that he would mention that he liked the CD and see if Daniel would reveal any more about why he had chosen to share that particular album with Jack. He doubted it, and he wasn't going to press it. He'd been right. The next day at the base he casually mentioned he'd enjoyed the album and watched Daniel intently for anything his young friend would betray about why he wanted to share that with Jack. Daniel had given him a quick shy smile and nearly imperceptible nod and gone about his business.

Jack had left the CD unattended for a few days. That had been a couple of weeks before their trip to Netu. Daniel had been bearing up under the burden of grief that hung over him. Everyone worried, but no one wanted to speak for fear that they might shatter his carefully constructed façade with their words. It was clear that he was dealing with the death of his wife as best he could. Daniel seemed to be dealing with all the unfolding events in his life with a stillness that was hard to quantify. Since Sha're's death it seemed that Daniel didn't move as quickly as before (except in those moments when imminent peril necessitated haste - for someone who lacked formal military training Daniel moved with astonishing speed in combat), and Jack was betting that had nothing to do with any lasting effects of the ribbon device Amaunet had used on him. He was certain that the gentle archeologist had gathered his silence around himself and that subconsciously he was afraid if he moved too quickly he'd slip and the pain he was trying so hard to keep at bay would find a crack in the wall of stillness and seep in. This was something about which Jack knew all too well. His human wall was years thick and lifetimes deep.

That CD had been waiting for him when he got home one day just before they went to Netu. He grabbed a beer and instead of sitting down to watch ESPN he turned on his stereo and played the album through. The music had been varied and some of it was strange. Jack was not typically an eclectic sort except for when it came to music. He would usually listen to anything at least once through before making a decision. He liked the album, and this time there was surprise waiting for him. There was another song: one that grabbed Jack by the throat and threatened to tear open the place he'd shored up tears too numerous to count over the years.

_I watched the western sky, the sun is sinking_

_The geese are flying south, it sets me thinking_

_I did not miss you much, I did not suffer_

_What did not kill me, just made me tougher_

_I felt the winter come, his icy sinews_

_Now in the firelight, the case continues_

_Another night in court, the same old trial_

_The same old questions asked, the same denial_

_The shadows close me round, like jury members_

_I look for answers in, the fire's embers_

_Why was I missing then, that whole December_

_I gave my usual line, I don't remember_

_Another winter comes, His icy fingers creep_

_Into these bones of mine, these memories never sleep_

_And all these differences, a cloak I borrowed_

_We kept our differences, why should it follow that_

_I must have loved you?_

He'd listened to the song, but couldn't finish it. He'd come to love the album, but that one song was something he didn't think he'd ever listen to again. So he would listen to the album sometimes in his truck on the drive to or from work but never that song. He would always just reach down and skip that one when it would come on.

Like today. He was listening to it as the quirky song about a boy working at a gas station was coming to an end. He reached over to hit the forward button on the CD player, but his bag was in the way. Jack pushed at the bag, but it wouldn't move enough to allow his finger access to the button. He leaned over to get some leverage and lifted the bag from its position on the floor in front of the dash console. He twisted slightly to set the bag on the seat in a position of relative stability. Then he glanced down long enough to orient himself to the location of the buttons on the CD console. That was all the time it took.

He'd driven these roads enough that the tightness of the curves was as familiar to him as any road he'd ever known. He almost never took the danger that those bends and twists represented to the careless for granted. He'd been witness to two accidents, one of which was lethal to the driver, in the years since he'd bought his house in the hills near the Cheyenne Mountain Air Station. He knew that it didn't take but a moment's inattention to lose track of the rise and bias of the road before you would be careening off the side praying a tree would stop you before you fell the entire height of the cliff. But he couldn't hear that song again. That became singularly important at that moment and in that singleness of purpose he left two lives hanging in the balance.

As he brought his eyes back to the road Jack realized belatedly that he was going a bit too fast for the curve, and then with horror, he saw that his momentum and centripetal force was carrying him straight towards a woman standing next to the side of the drop-off. His heart slammed in his chest and his feet slammed on the breaks as he attempted to steer himself away from her. The back end of the truck fishtailed and he let his feet off the breaks to regain control. Once the traction was back he veered hard to the right bringing the front end away from the woman. She was standing oddly: as if she didn't see him, though she was looking right at him. His overcorrection brought the rear of the truck swinging around and as he felt the sickening sensation of the right tires leaving the ground he knew there was no way he'd missed her. The truck rolled once, still spinning around like a top, and began its slide over the edge of the drop-off. There were a couple of trees in perfect position to intercept this wayward 'hail Mary' pass from the road and the last sound Jack heard before darkness overtook him was the sound of those trees stopping his descent as his truck crunched around them.

"Ow...Ow...Ow...Ow..." Jack tried to sort out his up and down and disentangle his limbs from the contents of his bag that had strewn themselves around the misshapen interior cab of his truck. _'Head hurts...bad...'_ He let himself out of his seatbelt and began inching his way painfully towards the shattered window on the passenger side of the truck. He was about to crawl through its jagged opening when he heard a faint moan.

"Oh, God!" The woman! He remembered she'd been just standing there and there had been no chance he hadn't hit her. _'.crap.'_ Ignoring the jagged pieces of polarized glass beneath him he pushed himself out of the upside down truck as quickly as he could. He was situated about ten feet down the drop-off that lowered steeply to a narrow plateau before becoming a 700-foot high sheer cliff. The pine needles that had fallen from the trees stuck to his hands as he crawled the short distance to the lip of the drop-off. He staggered to his feet, catching his breath as stars exploded in his vision. He stumbled and sank to his knees crunching the left one on a rock. "OUCH!" _'Get up more slowly,_' he told himself as he attempted to marshal his training and years of experience to help him move past his own injuries so that he could find the injured woman.

He slowly pushed himself to his feet with greater success. He opened his eyes and squinted at the late afternoon sun. Then he heard the moan again. She was nearby. Jack zigzagged towards the origin of the sound and dropped slowly back to his hands and knees at the dizzying sight. There she was! He lowered himself onto the steep incline and made his way to her as quickly as possible.

She was laying face down with her right side against a tree. A shock of dark brown hair full of pine needles covered her face and splayed out in all directions. Jack pulled the hair aside to reveal a pale scraped cheek. He gingerly reached to check her breathing and for a pulse at her neck. She was breathing steadily and her heartbeat was strong and regular. He felt along the base of her skull and slowly worked his hand down her spine searching for any irregularity in the bone. He then checked all her extremities for obvious injuries. He felt none, but that didn't mean there was none. She must have sensed someone touching her because she whimpered lightly again and moved her hand to her face.

"Try not to move. You've been hit." _'Yeah by you, ya idiot.'_ "I'm going to go get my phone and call for some help. Just stay put." He crawled on his hands and knees towards his truck, vaguely aware of the burning pain of torn skin on his palms and left knee. His phone had been in his jacket, which had been beside him on the seat. He scrutinized his battered truck for signs of instability. The truck appeared to be solidly against a couple of trees that didn't look as though they were going to fold any time soon. He sat back and tried to use his boot to clear some of the glass from his path. Then he turned back around and scooted himself back inside the cab. His belongings were a jumble, but his jacket was sitting exactly opposite where it'd been before the truck turned tires over roof. He reached in the pocket and pulled out his cell and flipped it open.

"Damnit!" A "No Signal" message mocked him from the fully-charged phone. '_Must be the mountain_.' He didn't remember ever having lost a signal when driving home before, but then he couldn't remember having talked to someone all the way home on his cell. He grabbed his jacket and a shirt from the roof of the cab beneath him. Then he attempted to pry the glove box open seeking the first aid supplies he kept inside. The box was jammed tight.

Jack made his way back out of the truck and started back towards the injured woman. He blinked. She was not there. He looked around, the movement turning his stomach and threatening to send him sprawling back into darkness. She was no longer on the side of the hill. He clambered up the slope and as he came level with the road he saw her. She was walking down the road. That had to be a good sign, right?

Jack hoisted himself over the ledge of the drop-off and scrambled to his feet. '_God that hurts_!' He started off after her. "Wait!" He called after her and she stopped momentarily without turning. Then she kept walking. Her pace was slow and deliberate. Jack attempted to jog and thought better of it immediately when he was admonished by a searing pain in his left knee and tunneling of his vision. "Ah hell," he muttered and limped after her at the fastest pace he could maintain.

He reached her and touched her shoulder. She spun around on him shooting a hand out, catching him completely off guard as she slammed the bridge of his nose with the heel of her hand. White sparks erupted in his vision and he staggered backwards. "OW!" His hands shot up to his face and when his vision began to clear he looked at them. Blood. _'She broke my nose_!' He was at once a little angry and a lot relieved. She must be okay if she was up to fighting.

He looked up to find her standing there with a clearly trained defensive posture. He'd seen this before...some guys he'd encountered in Iraq had squared off against each other in exactly this position. They'd been soldiers and were sparring to pass time. She stood there looking like she could tear him apart, but there was something wrong. Her eyes: gray like the dark clouds that gathered before a storm, but somehow vacant. She simply stood there unmoving. She was completely dissociated but still defending herself from a perceived threat. Jack took a mental inventory of the visible injuries: a serious bruise was swelling on the scraped cheek, her lower lip was bloodied and swollen, her shirt was ripped just below her right breast and the skin beneath appeared bruised and scraped as well with blood coloring the edges of the hole. Otherwise she seemed to be okay. Jack was certain she'd hit her head because he'd found her basically unconscious. There was no telling how long he'd lain in his truck unconscious himself before climbing out of the cab.

"I'm Jack," he sputtered. He raised his hands flat in front of him to indicate he was not intending to threaten her. "Are you all right?" '_Very dumb question. Of course not_.' He bent at the knees slightly to make himself appear a little smaller, hopefully less threatening. She didn't move. He tried again. Pointing to himself he said in an exaggerated tone, "Jaaack."

He sensed the flash in her eyes as a hint of cognition flitted across her face. Her hands dropped a little, her shoulders sagged and she whispered, "Jack," before she began to slump to the pavement. Jack had been coiled tightly with his knees bent and was thankful for that when he was able to shoot across the space between them and catch her before she fell to the abrasive surface beneath her. He wrapped his left arm around her upper back and swept her legs up with his right. Ignoring the protests from oh-so-many-places on his body he carried her back to the side of the road and laid her down gingerly.

Her breath was coming in shorter gasps than before. There was virtually no color in her cheeks causing a startling contrast between the deepness of her dark brown hair and the whiteness of her skin. He touched his fingers to her neck and found her pulse to be fast and not as strong as before. She was going into shock. Jack scooted over to where he'd left his jacket laying on the ground and retrieved it. He wadded it into a ball and placed it beneath her legs. He then retrieved the extra shirt he'd grabbed and covered her torso to help keep her warm. He reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone again and flipped it open: still no signal.

What the hell was she doing here alone and with no car, anyway?

Jack bit his lip and tried to think. His brain still felt ragged from the knock he'd gotten in the accident and his face was singing the buzzing sound of rushing blood and swelling. He looked down at the woman lying limply on the ground. He'd gotten blood on her. He wiped his hands on his jeans futilely. How was he going to get help? So far he'd been here what felt like forever, though it couldn't have been more than five minutes since he'd awoken, and no one had driven by and his phone wasn't getting a signal and he couldn't just leave her here and he was still two miles from his cabin and...'_settle down_.'

He looked at the length of the shadows cast by the trees over the road. He had a couple of hours before sundown. He studied the side of the road where the hill continued on up the mountain peak. Maybe if he climbed up just a little higher he would be able to get a signal on his phone and call for help. But that would still leave the woman alone and injured. '_Two miles..._' give or take. Could he walk two miles in two hours carrying an unconscious woman?

He would damn well have to try.

He bent down and touched the woman's side where her shirt was torn. He felt for give in her ribs and there was none. He was seriously hoping she was simply bruised and cut and that none of her ribs were broken because he was going to have to do this utilizing a fireman's carry. If only Teal'c were here...

With a deep breath to punctuate the declaration of his decision he bent down and began gathering the woman in his arms. She was completely unconscious now, not making a sound as he sat her up and put his head to her side pulling with one hand and pushing with his shoulder to situate her. As he made his way to a squatting position the knee that had landed on the rock threatened to go on him. Jack bit down, crushing an agonized cry between his teeth, the determination to get help more forceful than the pain.

He forced his legs to straighten and adjusted the woman's position so that she was balanced properly. Then he started walking. He thought about his truck and was tempted to turn around and look at it, but that would have meant he would have to stop his forward momentum and turn completely around and he just didn't have the time or energy to do that right now. He set out at a reasonable clip and was thankful that he was on the mostly-level part of the journey. The long road from the Cheyenne Mountain Air Station to his house was steep and mostly uphill until you got towards the end where it flattened out considerably.

He'd gone maybe a half-mile when he decided to check the phone again. He stopped and considered lying the woman down but then thought better of it when he remember how hard it had been to get her up to his shoulder in the first place. After walking as far as he had he doubted he could get her back up there if he laid her down. So he held tight to her with one arm and fished for his phone with the other. He latched onto it and flipped it open.

'_Yes!_' He pressed 1 on the phone and held it down to activate the speed dial. It was the easiest thing he could think of to do. Holding the phone he slipped her off his shoulder and lowered her gently to the ground. Her face was red from the blood having settled in her head somewhat, but as soon as she was down that color drained away and the stark whiteness that he'd observed earlier returned.

"Major Carter." Of course she'd still be in her lab even though it was their week off. He silently berated himself for not ordering her off the base. Still, it was a very good thing that she was reachable.

"Hey," he started, trying to catch his breath.

"Colonel?"

"Carter, listen I need some help. There's been an accident. On the pass going toward my house. I'm about a half of a mile past the truck. I need you to send a medical transport," he panted into the phone.

"Sir? Are you okay?" Her voice took that upturn that signified alarm.

"Yes, Carter, just send me some help. Now." No time for questions. He tried not to sound irritable. His head hurt worse than he could remember it ever hurting.

"Yes, Sir!" She hung up and Jack knew that she would be on it. It would take them at least ten minutes to get to him. He dropped down next to the woman and rested his arms on his knees, putting his head in his hands and dragging them through his hair. He did another quick cursory examination of the woman. She seemed to be stirring again. He held the back of his hand near her mouth and felt strong hot breath against his skin and when he took her pulse it was stronger than it had been last time he checked. She murmured something unintelligible. Jack wished he'd retrieved his jacket or at least the shirt so he could cover her. He leaned across her to feel the warmth of the skin on her arm.

And was abruptly startled by a hand clamping around his throat as she came fully awake. She grabbed him hard enough to cut the circulation in the superficial jugular veins of his neck, but instinctively he brought his hands to bear against her arm: one cutting at the elbow and the other cutting above in the opposite direction to sweep the arm. It dislodged her grip and in one fluid motion Jack took hold of her hand placing a thumb against the back of her hand and his fingers on the inside of her wrist. He twisted the hand toward her, bending hard enough to make it uncomfortable but not painful, and held her immobile as he got his feet fully beneath him. A spark of anger and fear lit her eyes. Jack saw it just as she thought it and reached out in time to catch the left hand as it started for him. He grabbed the left hand and twisted it in a similar hold as the right and straddled her legs before she could bring them up. She bucked against him.

"HEY! I'm not going to hurt you!" She was still completely silent and her eyes flashed wildly. "Stop it! You were in an accident and help is coming!" He strained to keep her legs pinned. "I'm Jack, remember?! Oh, for crying out loud!"

At that she stopped. A flicker of understanding settled over her face. She quit struggling. Jack immediately rose up off her legs and moved to one side of her. Her arms became heavy in his hands and carefully he let them go. They fell to her chest and she lay there breathing heavily.

"Jack," she said.

"Yes, Jack. I'm Jack." He settled into an alert squat and waited.

"Something has happened." It was intended to be a question. She didn't make to move but turned her head toward him. Jack noticed she had an accent. Arab? Israeli?

"Well, to be honest, I hit you with my truck. I tried to miss you, but when the truck spun I think the back end of it hit you." He kept his eyes fixed on her.

She didn't say anything for a bit. She started to push herself into a sitting position and Jack instinctively reached to help her. She flinched and pushed him off. Jack sat back on his heels again. The woman struggled into a sitting position and raised her hands to her face fingering the large contusion on her cheekbone. She examined herself thoroughly and then ran her hands through her long tangled hair, pulling leaves and pine needles with them. Abruptly she stopped.

"There is no truck here," she demanded with narrowing eyes.

"It's about a half a mile back. This road is usually pretty deserted, and I didn't have a cell signal where the accident happened. I didn't want to leave you there alone while I went in search of a signal, so I brought you with me." He met her level gaze. This did not seem like a concussed and injured woman, though she did seem somewhat afraid, and not just a little suspicious.

"You carried me." It was another question. This was definitely an interrogation.

"Yes."

"The truck is this way." She pointed in the direction towards his house in askance.

Jack gestured in the direction he'd come. She looked that way and then she looked at the direction they were going and Jack saw the question raised to her eyes. He waited to see if she would ask why he was carrying her away from town. She stared at him appraisingly, but did not ask. So he offered.

"I have a house less than two miles from here. It was the closest thing I could think of if I didn't get a signal." Her eyes flashed minutely, but she settled back a little. Clearly she was gauging this man, testing her circumstances. Jack's mind thought back to the way she'd hit him when she first thought he was a threat. But then she hadn't really thought that, had she? She had just reacted. With skill and precision. And the way she came awake this last time....

"You got a signal on your phone." Again, no question was asked, and yet it was a question.

"Yes. I called a friend who is sending an ambulance which will be here within a minute or two." Jack also assumed that at least one worried Major would be in tow.

This time it was a question: "Why did you not dial 911?"

Jack started...and then he stopped. Why, indeed?

"I still had you tossed over my shoulder like a sack of potting soil. I was thinking of doing things the easy way. You know, speed dial?" It was at least partially true. He couldn't say that the whole truth was that he was so used to the Air Force providing his home, police force, firemen, and medical personnel for reasons of national security that he wouldn't have even thought of calling 911. It had become second nature.

She eyed him with that unwavering gray stare and he was certain that she knew he wasn't telling her something. However, she decided not to pursue it.

Just then they both jerked their heads around at the sound of an approaching ambulance. Jack immediately wished he hadn't done that as a flare of pain shot through his head and a nauseating dizziness swept over him. He sagged forward and caught himself with one arm before he went face-first into the dirt. The woman at his side caught him under the arm and hauled him into a recovery position with his head between his knees.

_'Training....this woman has been trained,'_ he thought decisively. _'Military? Maybe she is stationed here._'

As he sat with his head down he considered what this might mean. He'd hit her with his truck. He could be in trouble. It was negligence pure and simple. There was no other way to look at it. He'd looked down at his CD player and when he looked up again he had nearly taken out what might very well be a fellow soldier.

"Do you work at the Mountain?" He mumbled from between his knees.

"Which mountain?" She was close behind him. It was a guarding posture that would catch him if he fell again.

"Cheyenne Mountain Air Station." He started to look up at her. She gently pushed his head back down, for which he was grateful because when he saw his surroundings he was quite sure there had been two of everything. Not a good sign.

There was no answer. He could still feel her presence next to him, but she didn't speak. So he started to repeat himself thinking she hadn't heard him. "Cheyenne-"

"No," she stated. Then she started to cough. It was a wet sounding cough that was painful for him to hear. He winced as she sucked air trying to overcome the reflexive sensation to cough again. He remembered her ribs and feared they had in fact been broken and his carrying her had damaged her lungs. She lost the battle and started coughing again, hacking and gasping until he heard her spit. He looked on the ground next to him. Blood. Sure enough, he'd hurt her by carrying her. Damnit!

The ambulance had arrived. She stood and walked sturdily to meet the medical team emerging from the back of the, uh huh, Cheyenne Mountain medical transport unit. _'No civilian doctors for me,_' Jack thought wryly. _'I like 'em when they can pull rank on you.' _Oh Dr. Fraiser was going to have his ass for this. His leg was barely healed from a staff wound and now he was gonna darken her doorstep again and he hadn't even been offworld.

Wait a minute! He had called the transport for her! He started to push himself off the ground and got a wave of vertigo in reply. Suddenly he heard a familiar voice, "Sir!" The stubborn blonde-headed Major had obviously followed the medical transport in her own car. _'Yep, knew you were comin,'_ he thought.

She covered the distance between them in a moment, stretching her full five foot nine inch frame in long purposeful strides. Her eyes were wide with alarm as she took in the grayish pallor his coloring had adopted. She had thought that whoever else had been involved in the accident was injured. He seemed to indicate as much during their very brief conversation. "I thought you weren't injured." Good ol' mother-hen Carter.

"Well, at the time I didn't think so, Carter," he said tiredly. "I'm fine. Smacked my head a little. The lady here, however," he gestured towards where she was speaking with a medic, "was unconscious for a considerable amount of time, was shocky, and is now coughing up blood," he said sounding shaky to Carter. "Have them take a look at her first."

"Colonel, we have enough medical personnel here to check you both out. We had no idea what we'd find so I told Janet to send a small unit and two transports." Carter squatted down and began to examine the Colonel's head.

"Ack! Quit!" He squirmed away from her irritably as her fingers touched upon a very tender spot on the left side of his head near his temple.

"Sir, you have what looks like a pretty bad bruise very near your temple. I think you should come with us now back to the infirmary." She said resolutely.

"Well, I wasn't planning on sitting out here all night," he groused.

She reached down her hand to help him up. He took it and she noticed that he pulled a lot harder than he normally did when she helped him up. She clenched her jaw with concern and turned to see about getting him transported immediately.

The Colonel had gone to see about the woman who had been involved in the accident. Carter hadn't seen a second car at the scene so she assumed the car had gone over the side of the cliff. She had no idea how the Colonel had managed to save the woman.

Colonel O'Neill walked shakily to where the woman was sitting on a stretcher. A couple of medics began moving towards him from the back of the second transport.

"You gonna be okay?" he asked.

"Yes." She coughed again thickly but gave away nothing with her eyes. The medic who was attending her reported to the colonel that she was to be transported to the nearest local hospital.

Jack thanked him and started towards his own medical transport with the two young airmen who'd approached him when he suddenly turned _'Ugh that hurts' _and called to her, "What is your name?"

"Shaboni," she said and then she was loaded into the transport and he was being ushered towards his.

The major saw to it that her CO was loaded into the transport and safely on his way before heading back to her car. She drove the short distance to the scene of the accident, parked, and got out. She surveyed the wreckage of his truck for a moment, astonished he wasn't any worse off than he appeared to be. From his short report, apparently he'd carried the woman when he went to find help. Sam stepped over the lip of the incline and made her way down to the open passenger window of the truck. She pulled her jacket sleeves down over the palms of her hands to protect them from glass and debris and crawled into the upside down cab. The colonel's belongings were scattered throughout the truck. The keys were still in the ignition. She began gathering what items she could find and stuffed them back in his duffle. She noticed a cracked jewel case and opened it up. When she found it empty she decided to try to retrieve the CD from the stereo. She depressed the eject button and nothing happened. Reasoning the device needed power to perform the function she'd requested of it, she reached up and turned the keys far enough to access the battery power of the truck. The lights on the dash came on and the music began playing.

_'Sting? I never would have guessed the colonel would listen to Sting.' _Neither Jazz nor Pop would have seemed like his genre. Rock, definitely, maybe even classical. But Pop? Jazz? No. And this was both. She pressed the eject button and eased the CD into its jewel case and put that in his bag. Satisfied that she had everything in the truck, she grabbed the keys from the ignition and eased back out. She spotted his jacket and a shirt lying on the side of the road as she climbed back towards her car and gathered them with the duffle. She looked around for evidence of the other car and found none. There was only one set of tire marks leading at an angle away from the road, clearly belonging to the truck. She noticed where the truck had fishtailed, and then the skid marks stopped. About 15 feet past that she saw where the truck had begun its spin and roll. There was glass and metal debris in a fairly straight line all the way to the trees. But there was simply no evidence of another car.

"She must have been walking!" Sam exclaimed to herself. She fished in her pocket to make a quick phone call and found that her cell wasn't working in this particular area. She trotted back to her car, tossing the duffel in the back, and began heading for the base. About a half a mile from the crash site she saw she had a signal and phoned the base, asking to be transferred to the radio dispatch. She was surprised the Colonel hadn't mentioned that it had not been another car he'd hit, but a pedestrian. It was a detail that would be important to the treating physicians.

"Delta one niner, dispatch," came the voice on her cell.

"This is Major Samantha Carter. I have a message for the medical transport that is carrying a civilian accident victim to Mercy Hospital."

"I'll take that message, Major, go ahead."

"It appears that the accident was actually pedestrian versus motor vehicle and not a two-car MVA. The civilian was apparently the pedestrian."

"Roger that, Major. I'll radio the transport immediately. Out." Sam grinned at the dispatcher who was obviously so used to working a radio that he'd forgotten how to talk on a telephone.

Sam drove toward the base silently wondering why the colonel had neglected to mention that he'd hit the woman with his truck. _'He was hit in the head. He clearly didn't feel well.' _She dismissed the idea for now. She suddenly realized she had neglected to phone Daniel. Teal'c had been alerted to the incident when she sprang from her lab to get the general, but had stayed at the base assuming everything would be well in hand. She held down the speed dial number for Daniel's cell phone.

"Dr. Jackson," he answered distractedly.

"Daniel."

"Sam?" His voice sounded surprised. He truly hadn't expected to hear from anyone from the SGC for the entire week. The decision to stand them down for a week was a solid and very needed one. He knew that the general would do everything in his power to prevent SG1 from being interrupted...unless there was an emergency. "What's wrong?"

"Daniel, Colonel O'Neill has been in an accident."

"Is he okay?" The edge of worry to his voice was heart wrenching. He'd been through so much lately. The last thing she wanted to do was give him more bad news.

"I think so. He seemed to have been somewhat dazed when I got to him. But..." her voice trailed off for a moment. Why was she even mentioning it?

"What else?"

"He hit a woman. A pedestrian. At least, I think he did." She heard a faint draw of air from the other end. She continued, "I think he ran into her with his truck. There was no other car. She seemed to be okay when I got there, but Colonel O'Neill told me that she'd been unconscious for quite some time and was shocky and coughing blood. I didn't get an opportunity to check her out myself." Her thoughts traveled to the colonel and how his coloring had been so poor and was he okay and had he arrived at the Mountain yet...

"Sam. Sam?" Daniel's voice drew her from her thoughts.

"Sorry, Daniel. Yeah?"

"Where is Jack?"

"He's been transported back to the base so that Janet can have a look at him. They transported the woman to Mercy."

"I'm on my way."


	2. Chapter 2

*****

On the ride back to the base Jack tried to hold his head with his hands to keep the shaking and bouncing of the transport from jarring it, but the medic attending to him kept grabbing his hand and pulling it back down.

"I need that arm, Sir," he said firmly but patiently.

"So do I, Corpsman." Jack grumbled. "So you can't have it."

"Sir, I have orders to start an IV, and if you don't give me your arm you will have to explain to Dr. Fraiser why her orders weren't followed."

Jack understood the threat. The corpsman was obviously well aware of how familiar Dr. Fraiser was with the Colonel, and he'd expertly played that to his advantage. "Score one for you," he submitted.

The transport hit a particularly heavy-duty pothole and the whole rig was tossed. The pain in Jack's head worsened to the point of threatening his consciousness again. He blindly grabbed with both arms trying to stabilize himself against the vertigo that stuck. The corpsman attending to him deftly grabbed him by the wrist and let the Colonel hold on to him, postponing the administration of an IV.

"Who's drivin' this rig, Ray Charles?" Jack said through gritted teeth.

"Easy, Sir. I know it's a rough ride, but we're almost there." His voice was suddenly coming from far away. _'Think I'm just gonna take a little nap here'_ Jack was thinking as the buzzing in his ears trailed away taking along with it all sight and sound. His eyes rolled back into his head and he went limp. The medic took advantage of the moment to finish the prep work required by the thorough doctor who'd sent him out, grateful for the reprieve of having to fight the stubborn colonel to get him to submit to treatment, but alarmed at the sudden obvious downturn to his condition.

The transport drove into the mountain and pulled up to the first of two elevators they could take to the level that would allow them access to the SGC. One set of elevators was for freight and the other for passengers. The freight elevator would be more useful for their requirements and less conspicuous for the colonel. They traveled the first set of elevators to the transfer level and then boarded the smaller elevators that would take them down to the SGC. At the 27th level the doors opened to reveal a team of nurses and a very impatient-looking Dr. Janet Fraiser waiting for them. The petite woman thrust her shoulders back as her part of the job began.

"Ma'am," he indicated as he began to inform her of her patient's condition as they rolled the gurney toward the infirmary, "the colonel here was involved in an MVA with a roll-over. He lost consciousness during transport. GCS is 10. BP is 130/95 and heart rate is a little tachy at 110. Resps are 16 and even. Pupils are equal and reactive. He did report having lost consciousness at the time of the accident for an unknown period of time. He complained of some minor left knee pain which he guarded upon palpation."

"Thank you, Corpsman. We've got him." She gave him a nod and pulled a curtain closed around herself and her team. The young man noticed a very tall dark figure standing very still on one side of the infirmary as if standing guard. He had not been in the corridor, but instead waiting for them to arrive here. Teal'c gave a slight nod at the corspman when he realized the man was observing him.

A few moments later the general was standing next to Teal'c. "Any word on his condition?"

"Not as of yet, General Hammond. He has only just arrived. He was unconscious as he was brought for treatment."

Hammond turned to Teal'c, "Please have the doctor inform me of his condition when she gets a chance."

The large alien closed his eyes in acknowledgment of the general's request, inclining his head slightly.

Major Carter nearly ran into the general as she jogged down the hallway trying to get to the infirmary.

"Whoa, Major! Take it easy!"

"Sorry, Sir." She stopped. "Have you seen him?"

"No, He is still being examined by Dr. Fraiser. Apparently he is unconscious. Teal'c is in there with him. I'll be back when there is more information."

"Yes, Sir." She turned and promptly took off running again quickly covering the remaining distance to the infirmary.

The general had almost made it to the elevator before Daniel Jackson repeated Sam's performance. The doctor burst from behind the sliding doors with enough force to elicit an "UMPH" from the general when he plowed into him.

"General! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to..." Dr. Jackson stammered.

"It's alright, son, just slow down, okay?" The general stepped aside to allow Dr. Jackson access to the corridor. He knew that they were all worried about their CO.

Daniel burst around the corner and saw Sam talking with Teal'c. He could hear Dr. Fraiser behind the curtain instructing her staff as they cared for Jack. He approached them noting the grave look they both wore.

"How is he?"

"He is unconscious, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c informed him. "Doctor Fraiser is still treating his various injuries."

"Various?" He turned a questioning eye toward Sam.

"I don't know, Daniel." She looked stricken. "His nose looks awfully swollen and he had what appeared to be a serious blow close to his left temple. If it was close enough it wouldn't have taken much to cause some swelling of his brain."

At that moment Dr. Fraiser pulled the curtain aside and came toward them all pulling latex gloves from her hands. She pushed a few limp strands of brown hair from her eyes. Daniel got a quick glimpse of Jack laying so very still on the gurney. He didn't look like the man Daniel knew. Stillness was not a characteristic of that particular man. Movement personified him. This was unnatural and Daniel didn't like it one bit.

"He is unconscious and it is too early for me to say just how deeply unconscious he is. He went from being relatively stable to relatively unstable in a matter of minutes. Apparently he lost consciousness on the way to the base and shortly after we got him he began showing symptoms of rising intracranial pressure." Sam bit her lip. The doctor continued, "His respiration has fallen off enough that I'm concerned about coma." She let that statement sit with them for a moment. "I need to call the general." She reached for a phone on the wall.

Daniel walked over to the bed where his friend lay unconscious. How many times had their places been reversed? A pang of guilt twisted his gut as he wondered if it felt this bad for Jack when he was lying there instead. He mumbled softly, "Hang in there Jack."

Sam and Teal'c appeared beside him and he noticed Sam was carrying a large duffle bag. She unloaded her burden on a chair off to the side of the curtained off area. Teal'c remained nearby silent and solid. He was an anchor for them in the churning sea of their fears. He cherished his position among his friends. Sometimes his presence was all he could offer in the midst of the often great turmoil of their lives. Teal'c often felt that everything that had happened in his life before joining the Tau'ri had prepared him for fighting the Goa'uld, but nothing had prepared him for the trials he would face at having to stand by and watch those who risked all for so many for so little in return struggle year after year with heartache and trial. A warrior knows little of such battles and his time with SG1 had brought him to battlefields of the heart and soul as well as those more familiar grounds on which warriors waged battle with one another.

Dr. Fraiser returned shortly and the general came in behind her. _'That was quick'_ she thought. She took a moment to observe Jack's vital signs on the monitor and adjust the rate of the infusion pump controlling the fluids and medications being administered intravenously. She took out her penlight and checked his pupils. Sam was reminded of how the colonel hated this part of his routine post-mission physical. He always moaned and made comments about it. Now he was saying nothing. He offered no resistance. But when she rubbed his sternum with her knuckles one of his hands drew up slightly.

"Janet? Did he do that before?" Sam asked hopefully.

Janet stood still for a moment. She didn't want to give them false hope because it was obvious that the colonel had some swelling of the brain. She didn't want to scare them, either, because it was often a normal, albeit serious, reaction to a severe blow to the temple.

"Janet?" Sam became more insistent, rising to her feet.

"Well, he didn't respond as well to painful stimulus before, but at the time his pupils were equal and reactive. Now he seems to be reacting as expected to pain, but his left pupil is reacting more slowly than the right. We're going to do a CT scan. That should tell us something. But it's still early. After a severe blow to the temple it is not entirely unusual for a patient to lapse into a coma for a period of time due to brain swelling." She put a hand on Sam's arm and then continued addressing all four worried faces, "if it gets bad enough we may have to insert an ICP monitor to keep a reading of the pressure to his skull. But hopefully it won't be that bad. His GCS has increased from a 10 when he got here to a 12, which is a good sign. Let's get that CT scan and we'll know more."

Sam retreated and sat back down on a gurney across from the Colonel. She'd seen him unconscious before but this felt different. The laxity of his features made him look strange to her. The bruising forming under each eye and the swelling of his nose was giving him a mask of unfamiliarity.

"Janet, is his nose broken?" Sam inquired as the doctor came to move him to the CT room.

"It looks like it might be. The CT scan will show if it is." She motioned to a nurse who came and helped wheel the colonel away.

Daniel had been standing at the foot of Jack's bed and he moved out of the way. He watched them go and then sank down on the bed next to Sam.

"Some vacation," he muttered miserably.

"Dr. Jackson," the general started. Everyone looked startled. They'd all forgotten he was in the room. "I don't expect you to leave the base with Colonel O'Neill in his current condition, but I was serious about this down time. After Dr. Fraiser returns with the results of the CT scan I want you all to report to your base quarters and rest. Someone will call you immediately if his condition changes. Do I make myself clear?" Daniel nodded absently and Sam muttered, "yes, Sir."

"I will remain in the infirmary, General Hammond." It wasn't defiance. Teal'c was doing his Jaffa version of imploring.

"Teal'c I cannot allow all of SG1 to run themselves down any further. Despite today's events I need you rested. We have missions coming up that I'm going to need you all on and at your best." It was a gentle refusal, but a refusal nonetheless. Teal'c nodded his head in acquiescence to the general.

"Major Carter, before I go, can you tell me anything about what happened exactly?"

The question hit Sam like a punch to the midsection. "Oh my God, Sir!" She exclaimed. "I completely forgot!"

"What is it, Major?"

"We have to find out about the condition of the woman he hit!" She jumped off the bed with purpose.

The general's tone clearly expressed his surprise, "The woman he _hit_?" How could she have forgotten to tell the general what had happened?

"Yes, Sir. Colonel O'Neill struck a pedestrian with his truck. She was in reasonably good shape when I arrived at the scene, but the colonel told me she'd been in much worse shape than he prior to our arrival. General, if she is seriously injured or..." Her words trailed off. She didn't want to say it. Daniel said it for her.

"If she were to die he could be in some kind of legal trouble." _'Leave it to Daniel,'_ she thought. Daniel stood up and faced her, "Sam, did you find out who she was?"

"I heard her name. Her first name. Shaboni. They took her to Mercy Hospital. That's all I know."

"Major, Dr. Jackson, I want the two of you to find out the identity and condition of the woman and then report back to me. A civilian police report may be filed on her behalf at the hospital." He turned to Teal'c, "I guess resting will be put on the back burner for the moment, Teal'c. You may stay in the infirmary if you wish." Teal'c nodded his head graciously. Then the general strode from the infirmary.

"Daniel, I'll call the hospital and see what I can find out. Will you tell Janet to make sure that the colonel has a tox-screen and blood-alcohol level added to his lab panels? Don't look at me that way! I know he wasn't drinking, but if we don't the Air Force could face charges of a cover-up if something happens."

"Call me when you find out any information on the woman, okay?" He called to her back as she was leaving.

"Got it!" She called over her shoulder.

"I believe Major Carter and General Hammond have been adversely affected by their many hours of conversing with Tau'ri political figures." Teal'c commented to Daniel.

"We all have, Teal'c. They're just covering their bases."

*****

Sam had gone to her lab to retrieve the number for the hospital. She had called but was unable to find any information about the woman. She didn't even have a last name. She walked back down to the infirmary and found Daniel sitting in a chair next to the Colonel's bed.

"How is he?" She looked at him. He didn't look any different to her and she couldn't decide if that was good or bad.

"I dunno. He looks the same to me. Janet has gone to read the results of the CT scan." Daniel looked as miserable as she felt.

"I couldn't get any information on the woman." She pulled up a chair and sat down next to him. "I think we're going to have to go to the hospital."

"Would they not give it to you or did they just not know?"

"I'm not sure."

Just then Dr. Fraiser came back into the room. She was carrying a large radiology envelope with a series of images inside. She sat them down on one of the carts that contained Jack's other chart information.

"What did the CT scan tell you?" Daniel asked her.

"Well, he definitely has some brain swelling. There is a moderate subdural hematoma just above the left temple. At this point I don't think it will be necessary to insert an ICP monitor, but we're going to have to watch him closely. His nose is also fractured, but there is no displacement of the bone fragment. It is very mild. I doubt he will suffer from any deformation of the nasal bone. It really is a small fracture. I'm much more concerned about the head injury. Aside from administering certain medications to keep fluid levels in his body lower or possibly draining the hematoma if it gets too severe - which is something I really don't want to do if I can help it - there is not much I can do. We'll just have to wait and hope the swelling goes down on its own."

"Do you have any idea when he might wake up?" Sam asked.

"None. It could be an hour, it could be a day." The doctor made a couple of notes to his chart and left the room.

"Daniel, will you come with me to the hospital? We need to find this woman." Sam asked.

"Sure, Sam." And with that he rose to his feet.

"I shall remain here with O'Neill and will contact you if there is any change in his condition," Teal'c informed them.

"Thanks, Teal'c." Daniel said.

The two of them started to leave the infirmary when one of the monitors began to beep a warning. Daniel ran to it and saw that the colonel's heart rate had risen dramatically. Movement from the bed beside him pulled his attention away from the monitor.

"Jack!" Daniel exclaimed. The colonel's body arched away from the bed as a seizure gripped him. "Sam, get Janet!" He yelled, but she was already gone. Teal'c moved to the side of his friend to help Daniel restrain the colonel so that he wouldn't pull out his IV or injure himself as he bucked with the full force of a gran mal seizure. His teeth were already locked together and the muscles in his jaw stood out strikingly. Daniel remembered something about putting something in his mouth to prevent him from injuring his tongue, but that was not possible.

Jack was rigid like stone and jerked his arms and legs spastically. Daniel was pretty sure he wasn't breathing and foamy spittle appeared at his bluish lips. The seizure had already lasted nearly a full minute when Dr. Fraiser came running into the room with a nurse coming behind her.

"Janet, where did you go?!" Daniel demanded, his fear coming out as frustration with her for not being here. She ignored the question.

"2 mg of Ativan IV." She calmly instructed the nurse who ran to a cart containing the drugs kept nearby in case a patient became unstable. Daniel and Teal'c were still holding the convulsing man trying to keep him from injuring himself further or pulling out his lines and tubes. The nurse appeared with the syringe of anti-convulsive medication and administered it. The seizure did not stop.

"Give him one more milligram," she told the nurse, watching the monitor.

To Daniel it felt like the seizure had lasted for twenty minutes. His arms and legs were burning with the strain of tying to keep the colonel pinned in place. He tried to rearrange his position so that he could have more leverage and he allowed one of Jack's arms to get free. The arm flew up and hit Daniel in the face, knocking his glasses off his head.

"OW!" He spat, getting a hold of the flailing arm, he pushed it back to the bed and laid as much of his body weight across the man as he dared. The nurse appeared with the second dose of Ativan and administered it. The myriad alarms blaring from the monitor next to Daniel began to quiet and the seizure began to subside. Within a minute of the administration of the second dose the colonel went limp. The nurse took a Kleenex and wiped froth from his mouth and the side of his face. The bluish tinge to his lips began to be replaced with a more normal color as he was breathing again. Daniel let go of him and stepped back a bit. His body was coursing with adrenalin.

Teal'c stood back and stoically appraised his friend. He then returned to the corner of the curtained area and resumed his position as sentinel.

"Okay, hang a Dilantin drip of 800 mg over 30 minutes." Dr. Fraiser said when she was at last satisfied that her patient's vital signs were returning to normal. The nurse left the room to retrieve the medication and Dr. Fraiser turned to Daniel, "I was in the bathroom, Daniel. I'm sorry." She sounded stricken.

Daniel realized he'd blamed her inappropriately. "No, Janet, I'm sorry. It was just...unexpected. I looked to see if I could get something into his mouth, but his teeth were clamped tight." He looked at his feet. He felt ill, sick to his stomach.

"No, no. It is best that you don't try to put something in a seizure victim's mouth. That is some kind of myth." She tried to reassure him, "Seizures can be caused by rising intracranial pressure. I'm going to have to place that ICP monitor so that we can know what is going on. If the pressure gets too high I will attempt to drain the hematoma with some burr holes." Though a consummate professional she was definitely feeling the personal effects of seeing her favorite bad patient in such serious condition. She turned to Sam who was standing with an ashen face and stricken expression in the entrance to the infirmary, too afraid to come close, too afraid to look away. "Will you tell the general? This is a surgical procedure." She then turned to Daniel and said, "I've got to get some assistance to prep him for the procedure. I'll be back in a few minutes. If he seizes again before then just stay with him. You don't need to hold him down. The medication Lieutenant Riley is bringing will help."

Daniel appreciated her reassurance. He felt like a heel for attacking her. He looked at his friend lying pale and still. His throat was tight. He bent down and retrieved his glasses from the floor and strode to a chair and dropped himself heavily into it.

The nurse appeared with a small bag of fluid and hooked it up to the tubing of the colonel's IV. She adjusted the infusion rate on the pump and then swept out of the room again.

When she was gone Teal'c turned to his troubled teammate. "Colonel O'Neill is a strong and brave warrior, Daniel Jackson. I do not believe that he will succumb to his injuries," he offered.

"I know, Teal'c." He held his breath a little then let it out slowly. "I just keep meaning to tell him something. I never do it when I have the chance and then something like this..." he gestured towards the bed.

Teal'c was surprised by the sudden words of admission from his teammate. It was not common for him to confide in Teal'c, nor for that matter was it common for him to confide in anyone. Even after all they had fought through as a team; there remained the fact that the Jaffa was responsible for the Goa'uld infestation and eventual death of his wife. Daniel had spoken words of forgiveness to him, yet he still struggled with the difficulty of releasing himself from the burden of his guilt.

"When he awakens will you not take advantage of your opportunity to communicate with him that which you regret not having spoken of before now?" the Jaffa asked him.

Daniel laughed sardonically, "I doubt it." He suddenly felt very tired. He pulled his glasses off, squeezed his eyes closed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. He did not notice the stirring on the bed in front of him.

Teal'c, however, did not miss the signs of life coming from his friend. He walked forward and observed the man turn his head and try to open his eyes.

Jack could hear voices near him. The deep baritone of Teal'c a comfortable rumble. The sound of tension tightening the soft-spoken words of Daniel. The sound of a monitor beeping the steady beep of a slow heart beat. They were near him, but still far enough away they were hard to understand...they felt wrong somehow. He tried to open his eyes and abruptly regretted it as the light stabbed at him increasing the pounding in his head. He didn't know where he was exactly. He couldn't remember how he'd come to be sleeping...or whatever it was he'd been doing. His muscles felt cramped and his arms and legs were burning like he'd been lifting weights. His mouth was dry and his throat begged for moisture. He swallowed, his tongue feeling thick.

Daniel noticed Teal'c move forward. He looked up at Jack. There was stirring and it looked like he was trying to swallow. "Jack?" He stood and walked to his side speaking softly. "You with us?"

"Uhmn..." came the unintelligible reply.

"I shall inform Doctor Fraiser that O'Neill has awoken," and he strode from the room.

"Jack can you hear me?" Daniel encouraged him gently.

"Dan'l?" A thick-sounding croak came from the Colonel.

"Yeah. Hey. How are you feeling?" He smiled thinly.

Feeling? Wrong. He felt wrong. Everything hurt and he couldn't organize his thoughts. He wasn't even sure where here was. Then he was aware of the quiet beeping coming from beside him. Beeping...monitor...heart beat...

"Inf'rm'ry?" he whispered.

"Yeah. You were in an accident. Do you remember anything?"

He searched his thoughts for some memory of what Daniel was trying to tell him, but the effort of it was too much. He started to tell Daniel that he just couldn't think clearly but the words came out funny.

"Cnnthnnk...wha..." and then he went limp again.

"Jack?" Daniel waited. "Jack? Can you hear me?" Where was Janet? He must have passed out again. Perfect, just perfect!

"Daniel?" Janet came into the room.

"He was awake. Didn't know where he was at first. Then he passed out again."

"Actually, this is very good. It is normal to be disoriented in the post-ictal period after a seizure. I wouldn't have expected him to wake up for at least half an hour if he had been conscious before the seizure in the first place. Add the medication we gave him when he was convulsing, which is a sedative, and he's not likely to be too lucid," the doctor told him. She didn't add that she was astonished he'd woken at all considering the fact that she had taken the seizure as a sign of his condition worsening. "We're going to have to do another CT scan to see if there is any change in the amount of swelling and collection of blood at the site of the hematoma. But maybe we won't need that ICP monitor after all."

Sam came into the room at that point. "How is he?" Her blue eyes large and liquid. Daniel realized she hadn't come back right away after Jack had had the seizure.

"He woke up for a minute." Daniel replied.

"Really?! That was fast. I thought it took a lot longer than a few minutes to wake up after a big seizure like that." She looked at Janet hopefully.

"It usually does. I won't know anything until I do another CT scan, but I think it is possible that somehow the seizure affected the amount of pressure in his brain, lessening it," Janet supplied.

"SG4 has just returned from P4X 987 and the general is a little tied up with the debriefing. It took me a few minutes to get in to see him. He asked me about the woman. We still need to go to the hospital and see if we can get any more information," she told Daniel.

"After the CT," Daniel declared decidedly.

"Of course, Daniel." She grabbed a chair from an alcove across the room and pulled it alongside his.

The three of them sat in silence as Jack was wheeled away for a second CT scan in just one hour. Then they waited as patiently as possible for Janet to return with the results. When a nurse pushed the gurney back into place Jack still appeared to be unconscious to them. Sam noticed Daniel let out a sigh of frustration. Apparently he'd been hoping the same thing she was: that he'd woken up while he was having the exam.

"What were the results, Janet?"

"He's definitely improved. We're not going to need that ICP monitor at all. The hematoma has lessened and the amount of swelling is already reducing. I am not sure how, but the seizure seemed to actually help him. Of course, it is entirely possible that the two are completely unrelated. I just don't know. Head injuries are very unpredictable. He's had a very large dose of a powerful benzodiazepine, though, so I suspect he'll be sleeping soundly for the rest of the night." She smiled broadly.

"He's just sleeping?" Daniel perked up noticeably at that little bit of information.

"Yep. And I want you three to let him sleep. We'll keep monitoring him for any changes, but the three of you need some rest as well."

"We've got an errand to run, Janet." Sam said getting to her feet and pulling at Daniel's shirt sleeve for him to follow.

"I'll call you if there is any change," she assured them.

"Come on, Daniel." This time they were successful in getting out of the infirmary.


	3. Chapter 3

*****

The hospital was crowded. There were patients sitting in wheelchairs in the hallways and the chairs in the waiting room were virtually full. The nurses looked harassed and the doctor's looked exhausted. Sam had no doubt in her mind as to why she was unable to get any information earlier. They were simply too busy to answer questions over the telephone.

The two of them went to the tired looking nurse sitting behind a desk in the triage area of the Emergency Room. "May I help you?" It sounded to Sam like she meant, _'May I not help you, PLEASE??'_

"I am Major Samantha Carter, and this Dr. Daniel Jackson. We are trying to find out the status of a patient that was brought here by military transport this afternoon. I do not have her last name, but her first name was Shaboni. She was involved in a pedestrian versus motor vehicle accident. She was the pedestrian." Sam produced her Air Force credentials for the nurse.

"I don't have any idea who you're talking about, but I'll see what I can find out." She dropped her pen on the clipboard she was holding and went behind a set of doors leaving Sam and Daniel standing there without another word. They watched the frenzied activity around them for a few minutes.

"This place is a madhouse!" Daniel exclaimed.

"Do you think this is normal or did something particularly nasty happen?"

"It's always like this." A voice from behind them made them both jump and turn. "They closed one of the county hospitals a couple of months ago and we've not been able to catch up with the overflow." A young doctor in scrubs and long white coat offered his hand to Daniel. "Dr. Mattheson. I hear you're interested in Captain Uziel."

"Captain?" Sam had not expected to hear something like that. "I'm sorry we were unaware that she was military personnel or we wouldn't have transported her to a civilian hospital." She took his hand and shook it briefly.

"She isn't American military personnel. Her name is Captain Shaboni Uziel. When she was unable to fill out her paperwork we ran her prints and got a hit with ICE. She is a registered alien and her papers indicated that she was a captain in the Israeli Defense Forces," he explained. "Please come with me." He indicated for them to follow.

They exchanged glances thinking this had become a little more complicated.

They followed the doctor to a small room that was obviously used for conferences with families when things were not going well for patients. The doctor motioned for them to have a seat and when they sat he followed.

"So, what does the Air Force want with an Israeli citizen in my ER?" Did he just call it his ER? Daniel thought, and not a little ironically, that he barely looked old enough to be a doctor. He looked closer at the badge hanging from the lapel of the doctor's coat. 'Attending,' it said. _'When did I get old enough to think someone in their thirties looks like a kid?'_ he wondered to himself.

"I'm Major Samantha Cater," Sam introduced herself, "and this is Dr. Daniel Jackson. We need to know the condition of Captain Uziel. She was involved in an accident that involved our commanding officer. We were unable to ascertain her condition at the scene and had no further information about her. Without further information a proper report of the incident can not be filed."

"Well, Major, she is in fairly serious condition. But I will not release any more information than that about her condition to anyone who is not authorized."

"I understand that, doctor. Would it be possible for us to see her for a moment at least to make sure we're talking about the same person?" Daniel inquired.

"I will ask if she is willing to speak with you. Considering the nature of her condition I was concerned that you intended to transfer her or interfere with her care in some other fashion," the doctor offered by way of a very suspicious explanation.

"No, no that was certainly not our intention. We just needed to get some more information so that all the paperwork could be filled out. Besides, the colonel is going to want to know of her condition when he wakes up," Sam told him.

"Well, Major, I can't promise anything, but I'll ask. If you and Dr. Jackson will wait here for a moment I will be right back." He stood and left the room.

The looked at each other.

"So let me get this straight, Sam," Daniel started. "Jack ran over a woman on his way home for his first week off in ages. No one got her full name and no police report was filed. It turns out she is a Captain in the Israeli Defense Forces, and they think the Air Force wants to interfere with her care for some reason?" He didn't know if he wanted to laugh or cry. It was so absurd it bordered on insanity. But then, wasn't that pretty much par for the course in his world?

"Yep, that's what I heard, too." Sam clearly understood. She had that same isn't-this-the-impossible-kind-of-mess-that-we-always-get-ourselves-into look.

"Just making sure I was on the right page, here."

They sat there in silence pondering the sense of humor the universe seemed to have where SG1 was concerned until the doctor returned.

"She said she will see you, but I must ask you to be brief. Five minutes. She is quite ill and needs no more stress. Follow me."

The doctor took them through the crowded ER to a room with door. He gestured towards the door and Daniel opened it. There, sitting on a hospital gurney in an unflattering hospital gown was an exotic-looking, if somewhat battered and bruised woman. Daniel thought she was quite pretty. She was clearly Middle-Eastern with deeply brown hair that cascaded past her shoulders in soft curls. Her skin was pale, but had a creamy olive tone to it. Her nose had a very distinctive shape belying her heritage. Her eyes blazed from beneath dark lashes like two gray fires. There was a spectacular intensity about the way she observed them that charged the air in the room.

"Please come in," she spoke softly but directly with a clipping of consonants that revealed her accent.

"Um, hi." Daniel began his well-practiced 'we're peaceful travelers from Earth' speech and then realized this wasn't a distant world and this was not a foreign life form. "I'm Dr. Daniel Jackson and this is Major Samantha Carter. We came to see how you are feeling and to ask you a couple of questions."

She turned her attention to Sam, "You were at the place of the accident today." Not exactly a question.

"Yes, I saw you briefly before you were transported here."

"The man who hit me, Jack, he was injured." Again, a statement that seemed designed to elicit a response despite the fact that it wasn't a question.

"He was," Sam confirmed.

"He was not brought to this hospital. I was brought here in a military transport. Air Force, I was told. He is an officer."

"He is a colonel. If fact, he is our CO." Sam was starting to feel a little nervous around this woman.

"You are not military." She directed her attention to Daniel.

Daniel glanced at Sam briefly. He got the feeling they were being interrogated. "No, I am a consultant."

"Why are you here?" Finally an actual question!

"Like I said, we wanted to see how you are doing and to ask you a couple of questions," Daniel shifted from one foot to the other, distinctly uncomfortable.

"Ask me your questions."

"Well your name was one thing. A report needs to be filed about what happened out there. We need your name at the very least." Daniel sounded a little testy to Sam.

"My name is Shaboni Uziel." She laid her head back against the pillow behind her. It made her hair splay out in all directions. It looked to Daniel like a cloud of warmth around the coolness of her eyes. In a very vague sense she reminded him of Sha're.

"The doctor informed us that you are a captain in the Israeli Defense Forces. Is that correct?" Sam inquired.

The woman stiffened almost imperceptibly and then relaxed a bit. "No." And when neither Sam nor Daniel made an attempt to inquire further she was visibly relieved.

"Ms. Uziel can you tell us what happened out there today?" Daniel decided to get to the point, but he controlled his tone.

"I was walking along the pass and I saw the truck coming around the curve of the road. It did not take the curve...," she paused looking for the right word, "correct. The truck was coming to me and the man inside turned to try to miss me. The tires lost their traction and the truck spun. The end of the truck stuck me. After that I do not remember anything until I was on the road where you came to us," she looked to Sam.

"Can you tell us what your injuries are?" Daniel asked gently.

"I have no major injuries. A concussion to my head. On the right I have bruised ribs. Some scrapes. I am mostly unharmed."

Sam and Daniel looked at each other then. Fairly serious condition? Quite ill?

"Dr. Mattheson seemed to indicate you were somewhat more seriously injured than that," Daniel told her.

"Dr. Mattheson exaggerates. I am fine. I will be leaving shortly." She dismissed the question in their eyes.

"May we have some information about how to contact you?" Daniel, again, being softly persuasive.

"I will give you my phone number and address if you will get something on which for me to be writing." There was something about the way she mis-spoke English that Daniel found very endearing. Daniel reached into one of the large cargo pockets on his fatigue pants and brought out a small notebook with a pencil in the top. He handed it to her. She wrote it down for them.

"Thank you Ms. Uziel," Daniel said as she handed the notebook back to him.

"I am Shaboni." She smiled softly at him and Sam couldn't help but smile herself. _'Leave it to Daniel. Women can't resist him.' _

"Shaboni," he said smiling back at her.

"Please tell your Colonel Jack that I am okay. I am not angry with him. He tried very hard to miss hitting me. I am sorry that he was injured. I would very much like to know that he recovers."

"We'll tell him." Sam smiled politely at her and indicated to Daniel that they should go. They left her room and started for the parking lot.

"She was interesting," Daniel said conversationally. Sam could not contain the laugh that his comment brought from her. She giggled outright. "What?"

"Yes, Daniel. She was interesting." She was grinning from ear to ear.

"But a little scary, too," he added quietly. That comment froze her grin and as it faded she had to agree.

"Yeah, a little."

*****

They walked into the infirmary to find Teal'c in exactly the same place he'd been when they left.

"How is he?" Sam asked quietly as she came into the room.

"_He_ is _hungry_," came a distinctly disgruntled voice from the bed.

"Sir!" she beamed.

"Shhhh!" he chided her. "Noisy."

"Sorry, Sir." She lowered her voice considerably. "But how are you besides being hungry?"

"I am fine, Major. Did you bring me something to eat?"

"Sorry, Sir, no. I'll go get you something from the commissary." She turned to go.

"Try to make sure it's actually food, Major," he called after her. He lay back gingerly on the pillow and closed his eyes.

Seeing that his friend was obviously in better shape than he'd been before, Daniel started for the door. He needed to get the information they'd gotten from Shaboni to the general, and it appeared that Jack wanted to sleep.

Without missing a beat and without opening his eyes Jack interrupted his departure again, "Where ya' goin' Daniel?"

Daniel stopped and turned around. "I wanted to report to General Hammond."

"You _wanted_ to report to him?" Jack opened one eye.

"Well, Sam and I went to the hospital to talk to the woman who..." how to put it?

"The woman I plowed into with my truck," the colonel supplied for the diplomatic Dr. Jackson.

"The woman you hit, yes. She seems to be fine, by the way."

"I was gonna ask," Jack said crankily.

"Right, anyway, Shaboni - "

"Shaboni?" The colonel looked up at him with a lopsided grin. _'Way to go Daniel.'_ He thought amusingly. _'Probably took him all of twenty seconds to get her eating out of the palm of his hand.'_

Somewhat clueless, and ignoring his implication, Daniel continued, "- said that she is going to go home tonight some time. The doctor who was treating her seemed to indicate that her condition was more serious that she appeared to Sam and me. But she assured us that she is not seriously injured and she doesn't blame you for what happened."

"Well that's comforting." Daniel was unsure if he was being sarcastic or not.

"Actually, O'Neill, there was clearly some concern that your accident involving this woman could have negative legal repercussions. General Hammond and Major Carter seemed to feel it wise to ensure that all bases were attended to."

"That's 'all bases were covered', Teal'c" The colonel tried pushing himself into a sitting position. He took note that absolutely every inch of his body was in pain.

"She wanted us to tell you that, anyway." He stopped and took a breath, wrapping his arms around his chest. "Jack, did you talk to her at all?"

"Yeah, I think she's Israeli. I found out one thing before we even got to know one another. She has Krav Maga training. I think she's IDF."

"Yeah...the doctor said something about her being a captain in the IDF, but when Sam and I asked her about it she denied it. The whole conversation with her was a little off."

"Her questions....weren't....questions." He was struggling to sit, clearly in pain. Daniel and Teal'c both leapt forward and each put a hand under one arm to help him up. He winced at the pain it caused. He didn't remember injuring his ribs. He didn't remember injuring anything but his head and his knee. Why was every muscle on fire?

"Right. They weren't." Daniel stepped back, folding his arms back over his chest.

"It's an interrogation technique. I'm telling you she's trained. She may even be special-forces."

"What is Krav Maga?" Teal'c asked.

"Oh it's your kind of stuff, Teal'c. It is the Israeli military martial arts technique. It dispenses with the philosophy of more traditional martial arts practices and adopts all the really nasty stuff from all the different traditions. Really aggressive kick-ass stuff." He rubbed his nose absently.

Teal'c nodded approvingly implying that he would, indeed, like this Krav Maga.

"A woman in special-forces?" Daniel looked at him quizzically.

"The Israelis allow women in their elite forces combat units."

"How progressive of them," Daniel remarked.

"It has nothing to do with being progressive," the colonel answered.

"Anyway, she gave us some contact information. When you're feeling a little better you're going to have to fill out a report."

"I knew this day couldn't get any better," Jack grumped.

Daniel stood there appraising Jack's condition.

"You, uh, seem to be feeling much better." Daniel commented. "I need to go see if the general is still here."

Daniel was obviously tense. "I'm fine, Daniel. Head hurts, but fine," Jack said softly.

"That remains to be seen." Dr. Fraiser stepped into the room at that moment. "You should eat something and get some rest."

"Ah, come on, Doc." He'd really been hoping to get out of the infirmary.

"Don't start with me, Colonel. You have a severe concussion. I had to give you a very large dose of Ativan when you had a seizure a couple of hours ago. You are not going anywhere except to sleep." She punctuated her last statement by putting her hands on her hips. No one could order the colonel around like Janet Fraiser, except perhaps General Hammond. He was a miserable patient, but she felt reasonably certain that she could force compliance with the important stuff.

Jack understood why he hurt so badly. A seizure. That must have been how he pulled everything from his big toe to his ear. He hoped Daniel hadn't been around for that. He knew how frightening it could be to witness a seizure.

Just then Sam reappeared with a tray. "The commissary was closed down for the night so I grabbed some sandwiches and some fruit." She sat the tray on a swing table and pushed it in front of the Colonel.

"Yes!" He tried to convince himself that sandwiches would be delicious, but the truth was he'd been hoping to get off the base and get himself some steak and beer. No chance of that now. "Thank you, Major."

"Well good, that saves me from having to get a tray for you. Now, the three of you: out. Colonel, you will eat and then sleep, am I clear?" Dr. Fraiser seemed a little testier than usual to Sam.

"Rest comfortably, O'Neill. I shall be in my quarters should you require anything," Teal'c said.

"Goodnight, Sir. I'll be by to see you in the morning." Sam smiled at him and motioned to Daniel for him to follow her.

"Uh, feel better, Jack." Daniel made a hasty retreat followed by Teal'c who walked behind them with his hands clasped behind his back.

"Well, I guess he feels better." Sam mused as they headed down the corridor.

From behind them came a protesting, "Not wheat bread! And where's the mustard?" Yep, he was going to be just fine.

Teal'c went to his quarters to Kel-No-Reem and Sam and Daniel went to find the general.

He was still in his office. Daniel looked at his watch...12:30 AM. He rapped his knuckles against the doorframe to get the man's attention. He looked half asleep but at the sound in the entryway he sat up straight.

"Come in." He motioned to the chairs in front of his desk. "How is Colonel O'Neill?" They sat.

"He seems to be doing much better, Sir." Sam smiled at him. The general could tell from that smile that he truly was in much better condition than the last time he'd gone to the infirmary to check on him.

"Good. Were you able to find any information about what exactly happened?"

"Well, General," Daniel started, "It would seem that he did hit this woman with his truck." Daniel started feeling around his various pockets for the notebook. "It's here somewhere..."

"Sir, if I may?" Sam interrupted.

"Please, Major." The general looked more bemused than impatient.

"Her name is Shaboni Uziel. She is an Israeli citizen." At that bit of news the general's eyes opened wider. "There's more, Sir. The treating physician, a Dr. Mattheson, told us that her ICE file indicated that she is actually a Captain in the IDF. When Daniel and I asked her about that she denied it."

Daniel cut in, "But when I spoke briefly with Jack after we got back he told me, without having any of this information beforehand, that he thought she had been trained by Israeli special-forces. He said she knew some kind of Israeli martial arts."

"Krav Maga." The general supplied for him nodding his head. "All Israeli Defense Forces are trained in it, not just special forces. There has been a proposal to the Joint Chiefs that we begin training our own forces in the technique. Apparently it is extremely useful." The general sat back in his chair and folded his arms over his rotund belly. "So what is her condition?"

"Again, Sir, there were inconsistencies between her story and that of the physician."

"The doctor told us she was in fairly serious condition and quite ill...I believe those were his words." Daniel had found his notebook and was looking for the page she'd written on. "But then when we spoke with her she claimed to be barely injured and that she would be leaving the hospital tonight." He found the page he was looking for. "There...her address." He tore it out and set it on the desk.

"When we saw her, General, she appeared banged up, but not in serious condition. And she told us to tell Jack that she wasn't angry with him. That she knew he tried to avoid hitting her."

"Well, Dr. Jackson, I'm glad to hear that she is not planning on pursuing legal action. As for the rest of it, well, I guess we'll have to chalk it up to a mystery. I must admit I'm as intrigued as you as to what an IDF captain is doing here and even more so as to why she would be denying her rank." The general smiled, "But it has been a long night. Let's leave the paperwork for the morning and get some rest, shall we?"

"Yes, Sir." Sam and Daniel stood together and strode out of the office. General Hammond was definitely intrigued. He would have to see if he could find out more about this woman. He looked down at the piece of paper Dr. Jackson had left on his desk.

1826 North Oakleigh Avenue Room 109

He scrutinized the address thinking it was suspicious. Hammond pulled a phone book from his desk and looked at a map of the city. Yes, North Oakleigh was exactly where he thought it was. He turned to the yellow pages and looked up local hotels.

The address on the paper was for a local hotel.


	4. Chapter 4

*****

"Good morning, Jack." Daniel came in to find the colonel sitting up in his bed fiddling with some odd-looking piece of medical equipment: some sort of wheel-like torture device.

"Hey, Daniel!" He grinned widely and then whispered conspiratorially, "Did you bring any food?"

Daniel produced a McDonald's bag that contained two Egg McMuffins.

"Attaboy!" Jack beamed at him.

"How's the head?"

"Aaa its ok. Headache is pretty mild. But I feel like I ran a marathon." Jack rubbed at his calf muscles as he mentioned it. The image of him twisted by convulsions shook Daniel a little and he wrapped his arms tightly around his chest.

Jack noticed. "You ok?"

Daniel licked his lips, "Sure. Just...it's good to see you feeling better." Damnit, he'd been there for the seizure part, Jack realized.

"Daniel, I'm fine." Jack leveled a gaze at the young man. He didn't think it was fair to put Daniel through any more anxiety and stress. He wanted his friend to know that he really didn't need to worry about him.

"Yeah." Daniel rewarded him with one of those shy blue-eyed smiles that made the wayward archeologist so irresistible to everyone.

Daniel licked his lips reflexively. "What happened Jack? I mean, how did you..." he left the more unpleasant parts unsaid.

"I t'k muh eyes ofph thuh road at precisely thuh wrong sp't." Jack explained through a mouthful of Egg McMuffin. "That road is treach'rous. I's messin' with thuh CD play'r. Next th'ng I knew I's upside down." He chewed on his food a little and got a far off look to him. _'Why was she walking along that road, at that spot, at that time?'_ He had not been able to escape thinking of the woman he'd nearly killed for more than a few minutes at a time while awake. _'Shaboni.'_ Beautiful name.

"Oh, did you see? Sam brought your bag. She got your things out of your truck for you." Daniel walked over to where it still lay in a chair. He picked it up and set it on the foot of the colonel's bed. It fell open and the CD was lying on top of the pile of clothes. Daniel looked down at it surprised. Then he blushed mildly. He'd meant to explain things to Jack about that CD, but he never found the timing to be right. _'Who are you kidding? The timing is never right for you to actually say something that means anything.'_

Jack saw what he was looking at and pulled the bag to him. He considered acting like the whole thing hadn't happened, but an impulse to push finally got the better of him.

"Why did you give me that CD, Daniel?" Jack held his gaze.

Daniel took a deep breath and let it out. Could he say all the things he wanted to say? He never had. The only person he'd been able to say everything to was Sha're. He opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again not knowing where to begin.

Just then Major Carter appeared in the room. "Good morning, Sir." She smiled at him brightly. Daniel looked at his feet.

"Good morning, Major." The colonel saw that the opportunity had gone, and he gave a little mental wave to it as it flew out of the room.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling fit as a fiddle. Ready to get going on that vacation." He took another bite of his sandwich. They turned as Dr. Fraiser entered the room. She looked to Sam like she hadn't slept at all. "Hi, Janet."

"Good morning, people. Colonel, what are you eating?"

He held up his sandwich saying, "brekfass ov champins."

"Well, I'm glad to see your appetite is so healthy." She checked the notes that had been made to his chart. "You are certainly looking better today."

"Thnkfs," he grunted.

"If your condition continues to improve at this rate and no other complications arise I don't see why you shouldn't be able to go home tomorrow."

"Yes!" he exclaimed triumphantly.

"With help."

"No!" he was crestfallen.

"Yes. You will have help for several days, anyway. It's that or you stay here." She grinned at him with a slightly lopsided smirk. She knew what he'd say.

"Oh, whatever. Daniel?"

"She got to me before I got to you, Jack. I'm already signed up. Unless something changes I'll be back in the morning to pick you up."

"It's settled then. When you finish eating we'll take that IV out and you will spend the next 24 hours under observation. Then you will be allowed to return home. But Daniel is going to take you home and stay with you for the remainder of the week."

Jack shot Daniel a sour look, and Daniel grinned at his irritation.

"Well, it looks like you guys have everything in hand." Sam hated to admit it, but she enjoyed the tortured look on her CO's face. "I'm going to go home. It is my vacation, after all." And with that she breezed from the room.

The next morning Daniel returned with another bag of breakfast for Jack.

"Well, I'm ready when you are." Daniel situated himself on the edge of a chair as Jack dug in to a heavy grease-laden breakfast sandwich.

"Lumme finsh." Jack mumbled around his breakfast.

"By all means."

"Gentlemen," General Hammond strolled in.

"Genr'l,"

"Sir." Daniel stood as the general entered the room.

"Colonel O'Neill, it is good to see you up and about. You look a great deal better off than you did even yesterday. I understand the doctor is cutting you loose this morning?"

"Yes, Sir. Got to get busy on not being busy, right?"

"Dr. Jackson, are you going to be driving the colonel home?"

"Yes, Sir. And staying for a few days."

"Very good. I will see you next week and not before, and you can consider that an order."

*****

Things had been quiet on the ride to Jack's house. They were winding their way up the pass when the silence started to get the better of them.

"You, uh, feeling ok?" Daniel asked awkwardly.

"Yeah. I'm not what you'd call a hundred percent, but the headache is much better than it was."

"I came by yesterday afternoon to see if you needed anything and you were asleep. Janet said you'd fought it all day and finally crashed around 3 PM."

"Ah, you know how it is. Infirmary beds are not like home. Besides, there was some commotion with SG-8 comin' back covered with some kind of insect stings. They were whooping and hollering." Jack grinned at the image of Lieutenant Braeburn refusing to allow the nurses to treat the stings that he got 'beneath his trousers'. The young officer had hopped from one foot to the other stalling until the pain got bad enough that it won out over embarrassment. He'd never noticed the colonel laying on his gurney with an open curtain viewing the whole scenario.

"Listen, about that CD…" Daniel started when suddenly Jack sat forward. He pointed out the window at something. They spotted his truck still sitting on its lid against the trees.

"Daniel, stop for a minute." Jack got out and walked down to the truck and inspected it closely. "Totaled," he muttered.

"Looks like it's totaled," Daniel called from the top of the incline. Jack flashed him an aggravated look.

Jack walked around the perimeter of the vehicle and came to the point where it rested against the tree. He could see further down the incline to a ledge of rock that jutted out from the side of the peak before it became a sheer cliff. There was a dark-headed figure lying prone on the outcropping.

"What the hell? Shaboni!" he exclaimed, seeing her lying on the ledge. "Daniel get down here and give me a hand!" He began to make his way to a place where the incline was gentle enough that he didn't fear he would go head over six trying to get to her. Daniel was lowering himself to his position with ease despite his aversion to heights. Jack still felt like he had been run over by a linebacker and not as sure on his feet as he'd like to have been.

They made their way as quickly as was safe to the narrow plateau where she lay.

"Shaboni?" Jack tried to elicit a response by calling her name. Remembering what had happened the day before he didn't want to touch her. He warned Daniel, "Don't surprise her or she might throw you right off this cliff."

But Daniel was already next to her. She was lying curled on her side. "What is she doing here, Jack?" He looked up at him.

"How should I know?" Jack answered, exasperated. "I'm serious, Daniel, be careful. I made the mistake of touching her without her knowing I was coming and she broke my nose."

"She did that? I thought you got it in the wreck." Daniel looked wide-eyed at the prone figure beside him. "She's not conscious. Does your cell work?"

"No, there isn't a signal right here for some reason." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the cell just to double-check and sure enough he saw that same "No Signal" message.

Daniel decided it was worth the risk to him. He reached down and felt for a pulse. She had one. It was a little fast, but strong. He bent low to see if he could feel her breathing. Her breathing was shallow and he heard a definite wheeze.

"She sounds sick. We need to get her to a hospital." Daniel started to position himself to pick her up. The wind was blowing steadily and as soon as he maneuvered her into a sitting position her hair blew into his face causing him to stumble. It smelled so good he nearly got dizzy. Clean and sweet like vanilla.

As Daniel started to put her over his shoulder to carry her up the steep incline she moaned. "I think she has some fractured ribs from yesterday. Better not carry her like that. Here," Jack bent over to help grasp her under one arm. "You take the other one."

Daniel got himself under her other arm and they dragged her to the top of the incline. Once they got on level ground Daniel slipped his other arm behind her legs and scooped her up like a child, gracefully and with ease the older man noticed with a touch of envy. Jack opened the car door and they slid her into the back seat. Jack got in the back with her and Daniel started to get into the driver's seat when she came to.

This time Jack was prepared for her violent reaction. She was completely disoriented, but she woke up the way a field operative woke up. When you can't afford those few seconds of drowsiness you learn to switch modes instantly. She started to attack him and Jack tried to pin her to the seat. "Shaboni!" he struggled with her.

"La'at" she fought against him. "Tijkthar ne'esh!" Daniel thought the translation but didn't have time to give it to Jack, _'No! Don't hurt me!'_

"We're only taking you to the hospital. You're sick!" She got an arm free and started to pull herself in the direction of the force he was applying. The action used the strength he applied to slip sideways and helped push her towards the opposite door.

"Oh-no-you-don't." He gritted his teeth and threw himself across her, locking the door. "Daniel, DRIVE!" He yelled as Daniel sat staring wide-eyed at them from the front seat. Daniel jumped and turned around immediately, starting the car and putting it in gear.

"Enta aian, Shaboni! Mehtag atryhené." Jack spoke soothingly. _'You're sick, Shaboni, you need to rest.' _In translation mode Daniel didn't even register that Jack had spoken in Arabic.

"La'at, ana mesh fahem…eh el beyehsal!" the woman cried. "Min fadlak!" _'No, I don't understand…what is happening. Please!'_ She was obviously becoming more alert. "Ento behaamalou eh hena, Jack?" _'What are you doing here, Jack?' _Her using his name shocked the hell out him and he gaped at her. She suddenly switched to English, "Where am I?" she asked very softly.

"You're in Daniel's car. Shaboni, I don't know why you keep coming up here, but when we got here you were completely unconscious. You need medical attention."

"I do not..." she demanded desperately. "I do not want to go to the hospital. Do not take me." She was getting quieter. Jack saw that her strength was giving out. Her breaths were coming in shallow gasps and an audible wheeze accompanied every inhalation.

"Why not?" he demanded.

"Jack?" Daniel looked to him for instructions. "What do you want me to do?"

"Please," she whispered. "Please no more doctors. I will be better if I may sleep. Just let me sleep. I promise." And then she closed her eyes. Her breathing was so ragged.

"If you take me there they will find me." She opened her eyes and said quietly. Her eyes blazed with fear, and Jack was certain her fear was that he would take her to the hospital. She was in the car of a stranger with the other stranger who'd hit her with his truck and she was more afraid of the hospital than she was of them. It didn't make sense, but he could see how desperate she was.

"Jack?"

"Just a minute, Daniel," he snapped. He ran his hands through his ever-grayer hair, wincing as his fingers brushed the spot on the side of his head where he'd made contact with the door of his truck. He looked at this woman who was filled with so many contradictions. She was a soldier, of that he was certain. But she also looked so very fragile at this moment. "Let's take her to my house. Maybe she's right and if she gets some rest she'll be better."

"If you say so." Daniel didn't sound like believed this was the right idea. It wasn't like him not to say something if he disagreed. _'Take what you can get, Jack,'_ he thought to himself.

Jack let Shaboni make herself comfortable in the back of the car for the few minutes left of the ride to his house. When they arrived he said, "Shaboni, we're at my house. I'm going to take you inside." She didn't resist as he lifted her out of the car and carried her in the house. He laid her on his couch. Daniel retrieved a blanket from a chair and covered her. Jack sat down at the bar in his kitchen and stared over the dining room half-wall into his living room where she lay. He suddenly realized that Daniel was banging around in the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" he asked irritably.

"I'm making coffee."

"You do have your priorities. It's in the cabinet above the coffee pot. Hold it down, will ya?"

He grabbed the can of coffee from the cabinet and started filling the pot. "Jack, hot coffee is a good bronchodilator, if she is awake enough to drink it." His hands never stopped preparing the coffee. "It will help with the wheezing."

Jack looked back to the couch. She hadn't moved. He didn't think she was awake enough to drink hot coffee because she wasn't awake enough to swallow. He put his head in his hands.

Daniel seemed to have gotten to the waiting part of coffee preparation. He leaned up against the counter and watched Jack. "You feeling alright?"

"Yeah." He was lying. "No," he admitted. "Head hurts again."

Daniel disappeared around the corner. Jack could hear him opening the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. Daniel had stayed with him when he first came back from Abydos. He had not stayed for more than a night or two since then, but he certainly remembered where Jack kept the aspirin.

"Here." He held out a hand with two tablets for Jack. He took them. Daniel turned and got a bottle of water from the refrigerator.

"I didn't even know I had water in there," Jack said with interest.

"There are four things you always have, Jack: coffee, beer, aspirin, and water." Daniel examined the coffee pot that was slowly filling with his favorite consumable. He walked into the living room. Jack assumed he was going to check on Shaboni. He opened his water and swallowed the aspirin then rested his forehead on the cool surface of the bar. He closed his eyes...just for a moment....

And was jolted out of his seat by a loud crash in the living room. He ran in to find Daniel being held by the throat by a semi-conscious half-delirious Israeli soldier. Daniel grabbed at her hands with both of his. _'Ah, Daniel, we've covered this.'_ Jack thought. Daniel had kicked over the coffee table trying to get away from her chokehold.

"Sweep her arm, Daniel." Jack said, somewhat amused that Daniel had ignored his warnings about approaching her. Daniel looked at him slightly panic-stricken. Jack mimed for him to strike her at her elbows to help loosen her grip on his neck. Daniel did as Jack was instructing and was pleased to find that it worked well enough he was able to get free. It occurred to him on some level that this woman was in an extremely weakened state...if she'd been at 100%...

Jack grinned at his red-faced friend and sing-songed, "Told ya'!"

Daniel backed away from Shaboni a few steps. She was clearly not completely aware of her surroundings. "Jack do you think it was wise to bring her back here?"

"No, Daniel, I don't think it was wise. But..." he looked at her and then gestured at her as if something about her physical presence would explain his reasoning to Daniel in a way that words could not.

"Right. Here she is." _'See, Daniel understands.'_

The woman on the couch was pushing at the blanket trying to get up. Jack went over to her. "Shaboni," he called her name gently. "You have to lay still. Daniel, go get that coffee," he instructed as he heard the tightness of her chest. She looked at Jack blearily and spoke something in Arabic. "Irk hene, min fadhlik!" _'Let me go, please.'_ Daniel started for the kitchen and was absolutely floored when he heard Jack responding to her, in Arabic. He spoke comfortably and reassuringly to her. "Mit khafeesh. Atryhené. Enta aian." _'It is safe. Rest. You're sick.' _He suddenly realized that Jack had done the same thing in the car and he'd missed it.

Daniel filled a cup with hot coffee and dropped an ice cube in it to cool it down enough that it wouldn't burn her. He brought it to Jack who, having heard Daniel's approach, had a hand thrust behind him in waiting. Daniel placed the mug in his hand and stood back as his friend attended to Shaboni. "Sa iduni," she said. _'Help me.'_ Jack spoke to her again softly "Eshrab." _'Drink.'_ He helped her sit up slightly and held the cup to her mouth and together they got some of the coffee in her. After a few sips she took the mug from him altogether and drank deeply. Jack backed away and picked up the coffee table, setting it close by so she could put her cup on it when she was ready.

When she set the mug on the table it was empty. "Feel better?" Jack asked her, in English.

"Yes, a little." She turned to Daniel, "I hurt you." It was one of those statementquestions.

"I'm fine," Daniel assured her.

"So you wanna tell me why you don't want to go to the hospital?" Jack sat in a chair across the room.

She looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. "Because there is nothing they will do for helping me that I can not do for helping myself," she offered her explanation. Jack doubted she would be more forthcoming than that.

"What did you mean by they'd 'find you there'?" She opened her mouth and then she started to cough again. He watched as she coughed painfully. Her lungs sounded very congested. Jack was starting to think that it had nothing to do with her ribs, but it was just misgivings as far as he knew. Her coughing subsided. "Never mind," he muttered. For now.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "I am very grateful for your helping me."

"Um, Shaboni," Daniel piped up, "why were you out there? I mean, how did you get up there?"

"I walked. I have no car."

"But why?" Daniel sat down on his knees.

"I am very tired," she clammed up.

"Would you like us to take you home so you can rest in your own bed?" Daniel asked.

She closed her eyes for a moment and tried taking a deep breath. She winced slightly. "Of course. I am staying at a hotel in the town." She started to push herself up.

"No, no. We thought you lived here. There's no reason for you to stay in a hotel when you're already here. Just rest. We'll let you sleep." Jack stood up and motioned for Daniel to follow him into the kitchen.

"Jack, there is something very wrong with this situation." Daniel spoke first.

"Ya think?" Jack ran his hands through his hair. "Look, she obviously has secrets. So do we. Besides, I don't imagine she wants to be all that open with the guy who ran her down."

"I don't think you're right there." Daniel shook his head.

"Well there's a surprise." _'When do you ever?'_

"No, don't misunderstand me. I'm saying that I don't think she is being evasive because you hit her. I think it is something entirely different. She trusts you to some degree." He pushed his glasses back up his nose. "I didn't know you spoke Arabic."

"I don't. Not really." Then he pushed ahead, "You were right in the first place. Bringing her here was not a bright idea. But I understand not wanting to go to a hospital. Hospitals _suck_. Still, there's something more than that."

"Something about somebody finding her," Daniel raised his eyebrows at him.

"That's what I think, yeah."

"So what do you want to do?"

"I want to go to bed. My head hurts," he grumped.

"About Shaboni?" Daniel waved a hand at the living room.

"Let her sleep. The coffee seemed to help her breathing. If she doesn't want to tell us anything about how she came to be unconscious on the side of a mountain I guess that's her prerogative, Daniel. When she gets some sleep we should take her back to her hotel. You ok?" He gestured towards Daniel's neck.

"Fine. She was fast, Jack. Blindingly fast."

"Imagine what she could do to you if she wasn't sick," Jack smirked.

"I did. It was not a happy thought." Daniel rubbed at his neck.

Jack laughed quietly and slapped his friend on the shoulder. Then he went back to the living room and sat down in a chair. Shaboni was sleeping soundly in the same position she'd been in when they left the room. Jack leaned back and watched her. She was an unusual looking woman. Her dark hair surrounded her face in billowy curls. Her skin was very light, but had an obvious olive tone to it. There was a large bruise on her cheek, but other than that he saw no obvious evidence of the incident from the day before.

Daniel appeared in the doorway with a cup of coffee and questioned silently if Jack wanted some. Jack shook his head. Daniel went back to the kitchen.

Jack sat in silence watching her sleep. His headache began to subside and a fierce weariness settled over him. He put his head against the back of the chair and promptly fell asleep.

When he awoke the shadows had lengthened and he was covered with a blanket. He realized that it was the blanket Daniel had used to cover Shaboni. She was no longer lying on the sofa. Jack could hear sounds coming from the back of the house. He went to investigate.

When he pushed open the sliding glass door to the deck he found Daniel tending the grill, Shaboni sitting in a chair snickering, and a most heavenly aroma filling the air.

"I smell meat," he commented hopefully.

"While you two were sleeping I ran to the store and picked up some food." Daniel gestured toward the table. Jack saw empty butcher wrappings, a plate of potatoes, and a bowl of salad.

"Yes, you did!" Jack inspected the grill. STEAK!

"Beer's in the fridge," Daniel informed him.

Jack went straight back inside to retrieve some. It occurred to him suddenly that Daniel had left him alone in the house with a completely unknown entity. Thinking on how utterly foolish that was he was momentarily tempted to scream at him. The pain in his head stopped him long enough to catch the sounds coming from the patio. Clearly nothing bad had happened. He could hear Daniel and Shaboni talking with each other. Daniel has an easy way with people. They gravitate to him. Young, old, man, woman, Daniel could talk to anyone. He has sincere interest in who they are and cares about what is important to them. He feels their passions and their pain. It makes him one of the most fearsome enemies of anyone who would subjugate a people through cruelty or oppression. It makes him one of the most tireless and dedicated members of the SGC. It was something about Daniel that Jack didn't fully understand, but something he valued and respected greatly.

Lunch was perfect. The food was good. The air was crisp, but not cold. They ate and talked and let Shaboni get to know them a bit. Daniel talked about archeology and his studies of ancient cultures and Jack talked about hockey. Jack noticed that she didn't eat much, but she seemed to enjoy the conversation and beer. When they'd finished she said, "This is a beautiful home. It is nice to be surrounded by trees and the mountains."

"It's not a bad way to live," Jack admitted.

"I would like to see more." She looked around and indicated with her hand that she wanted to explore.

Daniel looked at Jack with concern. Jack considered it for a moment. She still looked very pale. But her breathing seemed fine.

"I'll show you around, if you want," Jack said. It would give him a chance to find out more about this strange woman.

"Yes, I would like that." She stood up and began to clear the table in front of them.

"I'll get that." Daniel reached at took the plate from her hands. "You guys take a walk." He flashed a look at Jack hoping he would catch the silent request to take it easy.

"It's a little cold," Jack looked at Shaboni. "Would you like a coat?"

"Yes, please," she smiled at him. Her gray eyes sparkled so brilliantly it gave him butterflies in his stomach. _'Stop that,'_ he told himself.

Jack went into the house and retrieved a jacket for her. It would be too large, but it would keep her warm enough. He went back to the deck and said, "Let's go."

Jack and Shaboni took the steps from the deck to a trail that led into the woods. He showed her how the trails near his home intersected at the back of the house, which sat about 1500 feet from a relatively sudden drop-off. The house was situated about halfway up a particularly lonely peak surrounded by luscious pine trees. He took her to a spot where she could see the view that living on a mountain afforded.

She stepped close enough to the edge that Jack's heart sped up a little. Daniel had never come this far down from the house. His teammate had a fear of heights that he was constantly battling in the field. But when he was on down time he would have nothing to do with high places if he could help it. Shaboni stood facing the open sky with a chilled wind blowing her hair. She pulled the coat in around herself and coughed.

"That sounds like a pretty mean cough," Jack commented.

"I will be fine."

"So you've said. Is that from yesterday?" He clenched his teeth waiting for the answer.

"No, Jack, I do not cough from the accident." She sounded tired.

That little revelation confirmed his suspicions from earlier. She'd already been sick.

"There is water near here," she turned to him.

"Oh yeah, there's a stream back that way." He hitched a thumb over his shoulder.

"Show me," she smiled softly.

They walked back the way they'd come and turned before they got to the section of trail that led back to the house. They emerged from the trail into a small clearing bordered on one side by a softly babbling steam. It was shallow from lack of rain and rocks stood out on the shore. There was a Cape Cod beach chair situated near to the shore.

"You come here," she said to him.

"My little piece of heaven on Earth," he beamed proudly. "Do you fish?"

She looked at him with a puzzled face, "I do not understand."

"Samak," he translated for her. "Fish."

"Oh! No I have not fish."

"Fish-ed," he instructed.

"Fished," she corrected herself.

"You speak Arabic."

"A little." He bent over and picked up a handful of stones and started chucking them into the water. Shaboni went to the chair and sat down pulling her feet beneath her like a child would sit.

"So why are you in Colorado Springs?" He wasn't going to let her duck the question this time. It was time to find out a little about this woman. An Israeli special-forces soldier who spoke Arabic instead of Hebrew wandering around a military town like Colorado Springs? Things were looking less like 2+2=4 and more and more like some kind of Trigonometry that he would never grasp.

"I wanted to find someone."

"And did you?"

"No." She looked across the surface of the water as a stone startled a bird into flight.

"Who are you looking for?"

"My husband."

That shut him up for a minute. He watched her. It looked to Jack like she was fighting back tears. _'Ah hell. You had to go and make her cry.'_ Jack went to her and squatted beside her, flinching as his knee reminded him of the abuse it'd suffered a couple days before.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you." He reached out and patted her shoulder gently.

She bit her lip and turned her face away from him. Her shoulders began trembling as she cried silently. He plopped down on his rear end rubbing her upper arm with one hand, awkwardly trying to offer a little comfort. _'Daniel should be here. He's WAY better at this stuff.'_ She rubbed tears away from her cheeks with her fingers and started coughing again. This time it didn't stop right away. Her face showed the strain of it, veins in her neck and forehead bulged, and it looked to Jack like she was in terrible pain.

"Let's go back." He got up and offered her a hand.

"Yes. Thank you for showing me..." she stood up as she spoke and promptly fell to one side as if her right leg would not take her weight. She crashed to the ground heavily.

"Whoa! You okay?"

"Yes. My leg is...no feeling," she patted her leg.

"It probably just went to sleep when you did that twisty thing and sat on it."

"Of course," she didn't sound as though she agreed.

"Here," he bent down and started helping her up again.

"Let me sit. It will pass."

He sat down next to her on the grass and leaves and pine needles. The sun was sliding through the trees casting light from above and behind Shaboni. To Jack it looked like a halo. _'She's married,' _he reminded himself.

"You know, I'm sorry I hit you," he looked her in the eyes as he said it.

"I am not angry with you, Jack."

"Well that's good to know because if you were I'd have to be very afraid." He grinned at her, brown eyes shining teasingly.

She looked at him puzzled. He didn't realize that she had no idea she'd hit him.

"Yesterday, after I, uh, hit you, you got up and started walking. I surprised you by walking up behind you and...," he pointed to his nose.

"I did that," she stated wide-eyed. She leaned closer to him to study the dark blue bruises under his eyes and the swollen nose. "It is fracture."

He grinned lopsidedly. "A little. Its fractur-ed," he emphasized the correct pronunciation for her.

"Fractured." She blushed. "I do not remember having hit you."

"You are trained in Krav Maga, aren't you?"

Astonishment overtook her face. "How do you know this?"

"It was the way you were standing. When you flattened my nose you took a posture I'd seen before...in the Middle East. I knew a group of Israeli special forces attached to unit 5707. They sparred a lot and I learned a few things from them." He took a stick and started poking absently at the ground.

"You are familiar with the T'ZASAM." Then her eyes narrowed as she realized what had just happened. "You are attempting to gain information from me."

He looked at her openly. "Yeah...I am."

"I will tell you nothing of value." Anger flashed in her stormy eyes. How could she have been so foolish? She knew perfectly well that this man was a colonel in the American Air Force. But he had tricked her. It was completely uncharacteristic for her to have volunteered information like that. It went against the deepest levels of her training. She took it for evidence of the reality of her condition and forced the thought aside.

"I am not trying to get any information out of you other than who you are and what you are doing here," Jack said with a touch of heat to his voice. "Look, Shaboni, you didn't want me to take you to a hospital when you clearly needed one, and because I am an idiot I didn't do it. Twice this week you've been up on the side of The Horn. And without a car, I might add. It is a long walk up Stage Road. Very long." He stopped himself, realizing he sounded angry. She looked very suspicious, contemplating something. He thought maybe he'd chosen the wrong tact.

He tried a different one: "Never mind. It's none of my business." He looked back at the ground. "Are you ready to try again?" He inclined his head towards the house.

She looked at him for a moment longer, wringing one hand in the other as if she were trying to coax feeling back into it. She took a deep breath that sounded extremely tight to Jack and said with round gray eyes fixed on him, "I came here to find my husband."

"You really don't have to tell me anything. I just wondered why I keep finding you alone on this side of this mountain."

"No I want to tell you. It might be good to tell someone."

He settled down and waited for her to continue. That had worked better.

"My husband was a chemist. He was asked to work on a project that he could not tell me about. It was a strange thing, Jack. I am an officer of intelligence for my government. At least I was. My clearance was higher than his." She looked down at her hands and shook the one she'd been wringing. "He said he had to go to United States. That there was something here that was more important than anything anywhere. All of the work he had been with was to stop. Some of his projects were important for the military. But they were all to be stopping. And he left. He could not tell me where in America he would go. And he never came home." She had a steely look. Her mouth set determinedly against the rising emotions.

"So you think he came here?" Jack asked. His heart had definitely sped up a little. This story was staring to have a very suspect ring to it. He suddenly wanted to talk to Carter.

"As I said, I was an officer of intelligence. Initially I was a soldier. I had never wanted to be anything else. I became part of a unit called Shaldag. It is Sayeret. The Mossad were seeking personnel and were to be recruiting from the military intelligence units. I became Mossad officer." She looked him squarely in the eyes. Hope seemed registered there. Maybe if he knew of T'ZASAM he would know of other Israeli units. She was rewarded by a look of recognition and something that resembled impression on the colonel's face. "I spent a great deal of time operating in enemy lands. I can tell you that I was to be infiltrating a terrorist organization in Syria, but that is everything I may tell you on that. I cannot speak further of my activities." She would never reveal to anyone anyway the unspeakable acts she'd committed as a service to her organization. Assassins and whores have very much in common, and for much of her adult life Shaboni had felt that she was both.

"I _so_ understand that," Jack commented tellingly.

She understood his statement. _'He must operate secretly as well.' _

The darkness of her gaze seemed significant to Jack. He wouldn't speculate, but the evil he kept in a box for use 'only-when-necessary' seemed touched by the intensity of her stare. Did she have a similar box she kept hidden, even from herself and especially at night?

"So when time had gone on and my husband was not returning I decided I must find him. I resigned from Mossad. I contacted those who might tell me something, but no one would tell me anything of value. He was gone here a year before I began to look and I was looking another year. I found something one day when working with a Russian chemist who was friend of my husband. He had document on the computer, which was speaking of a program in Colorado. Someone had requested for him as well."

Jack could tell where this was going. He felt the need to stop her before she said anything further, but at the same time if he reacted too strongly she would become suspicious. He decided to let her tell him everything she wanted to say and then tonight he would call Carter. She had to know if the SGC had recruited chemists from other countries to work on the program.

Shaboni continued, "I was asking him about the file on the computer. He was denying that it was there. He would tell me nothing and he forced me to leave. He said I must never contact him. He said we would both die if I was not to let it go." She was talking more quickly now. "I went home but I had found a name in that file of someone who might know of such a project employing an Israeli chemist in the United States. I knew of him. He worked as mercenary. I told him who I was and what I was looking for and he would not tell me anything until we met in Prague. I saw this man, also a scientist, in Prague at restaurant where he told me of need to test the molecular structure of items recovered from highly classified missions. They were saying the objects were to be found on other worlds. I did not think this could be correct, but I was thinking that he was knowing at least where my husband had gone. After we ate he showed me his lab and something he was building for some Americans." Her eyes took on a far away look. To Jack she appeared positively haunted. She paused, biting her lip, then continued. "He showed me his work. There were men." She was having difficulty speaking now. She paused, catching her breath, "There were men who came into the lab, Americans. The man who was helping me was shot and his lab was destroyed. I was able to get away. I had been hiding for two weeks." Her breathing sounded too tight to Jack and he wanted to get her back to the house and out of the cold.

"He had told me that my husband was working on Star Gaze Mountain in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I came here and could not find this Star Gaze Mountain. So since the only man who would help me was dead I was not knowing what else to do. I went to a library and looked at the maps. I was thinking maybe I had found it so I came up here. I have not found it. I have no other information and no other place to search." She stopped again biting her bottom lip. Then she looked Jack fully in the face, "I accepted long ago that my husband is dead. The man in Prague also believed him to be dead. He would have contacted me if he were living. I am wanting to find out what happened to him." She stopped and took a wheezing breath, which brought on a serious bout of coughing.

"Okay, party's over." Jack got to his feet and reached down and took her hand. He helped her get to her feet. "Let's get you back to the house."

Shaboni could not yet walk because she was coughing so hard. She leaned forward and Jack held her arm to keep her from losing her balance. When the coughing finally subsided she spit at her feet spraying blood on the ground.

"Jesus!" Jack exclaimed. "You need a doctor! Come on, let's go."

"NO!" she yelled. "You said you would not take me to hospital!" She pulled away from him.

"Okaayy! Okay! I won't take you anywhere yet." _'I'm gonna be SO sorry I said that.'_

"Promise me!"

"No, I won't promise that. I will promise that I am not going to take you anywhere NOW. But I won't promise that I will do nothing if it looks like you're going to DIE IN MY LIVING ROOM." That was going to have to be good enough.

"Very well," she acquiesced.

Shaboni let the colonel help her back to the house and by the time she got there she was clearly having difficulty breathing. Daniel was in the living room reading one of Jack's books. He put it down when they came in.

"Daniel, do we have any more of that coffee?" Jack asked when he saw them.

Daniel jumped up and got a cup of fresh coffee. "How do you like it, Shaboni?"

She looked at Jack puzzled by the question.

"Do you want sugar in it? Or milk? Not that I have any milk..." Jack explained.

"Oh, no. I do not want anything in the coffee but coffee," she called to Daniel.

"My kind of woman," Jack grinned at her. She visibly blushed. He left it alone.

She sat down on the couch and pulled her shoes off. Then she tucked her feet underneath her as she had down by the stream. Daniel brought her the coffee and sat down across from her. Jack decided that now was not the time to tell Daniel about their conversation. Nor was it the time to call Carter. But later....

"So, kids, what do we want to do tonight?" Jack hopped up, suddenly wishing he hadn't as a wave of dizziness and nausea swept over him.

"Jack?" Daniel saw the look on the colonel's face and knew it meant trouble. Jack tried to make some nonchalant comment to blow him off, but decided that he felt entirely too swimmy to say anything. He sank back to the chair, gripping the handles as he waited for the buzzing and graying to pass. "Jack!" Daniel insisted.

"Just...a...minute," he managed.

"He is not well," Shaboni was not asking a question with her statement this time. She stood up with her cup of coffee and walked to him. "Come and lay down." She took his hand from the armrest and led him shakily to the couch. He didn't resist and he didn't make a sound as he carefully laid himself down. Shaboni moved to a chair and sat down, tucking her feet under her and still drinking her coffee.

Daniel wasn't sure he was up to taking care of two sick people by himself. He knew if he called Sam to come and help him that Jack would be distinctly unpleasant. He guessed he would just have to make the best of it.

Daniel left the room and reappeared with the bottle of aspirin and a bottle of water. He handed them both to Jack and when the grizzled-looking colonel didn't do anything with them right away he took them back out of his hands and opened the bottle himself. He poured a couple of tablets into his hand, opened the bottle of water, and then handed them both back to Jack as a directive. Jack shakily obliged. He put the bottle of water on the coffee table and put his hands over his eyes.

"Overdid it?" Daniel asked him.

"No," Jack snapped.

"You overdid it." And with that Daniel walked from the room.

Jack rubbed his head with his fingernails trying to push the pain back a little bit. Daniel was right. He'd done entire too much messing around for the seriousness of the concussion he'd received. He vowed to rest for the next few days. He would feel better in a day or two. Right after he called Carter...

Daniel returned with Jack's bag from his car. He put it down on the floor in the living room next to Shaboni. She'd finished her coffee. "Would you like another cup?"

"Yes, I would." She handed him the empty mug. She looked over at the colonel who now knew more about her than any other person in her life. She knew that her desperation had been the major reason she'd told him so much. Of course he couldn't know what she was talking about and he surely couldn't help her, but she was out of time. She just wanted to know. Just wanted to know what had happened to Emil. And if she couldn't find out she wanted someone _else_ to know.

A fresh fit of coughing roused the colonel from his resting. He lifted his hands and looked over at her. She looked back at him. When she saw how concerned he was as he looked at her she smiled so brightly it took his breath away. He had to double check to be sure that it was in fact her brilliant smile, and, yes...there it was...it was definitely her smile and not the knock to the head. He couldn't help but smile back at her.

Daniel came into the room to find his two patients grinning at each other. They turned and grinned at him. He felt like he'd missed something important. He handed the cup of coffee to Shaboni and turned to go back to the kitchen for a cup for himself. The bag lying on the floor next to her feet tripped him. The top was unzipped and some of the contents spilled out. Among them was the CD that Sam had put in the bag.

"This is American music," she asked.

"Um, no, it's actually a British artist named Sting." Daniel wrapped his arms around his chest.

"This is good," she looked at them both questioningly.

"Yes, it is," Jack answered her and glanced at Daniel who shot him a tense look.

"Then we must listen to it," she declared and began to take it to the stereo.

"No, not right now," Jack stopped her. "I know, let's watch a movie."

She looked distinctly disappointed, but sat back down in the chair.

"Uh uh, over here." Jack swung his feet off the couch and patted the seat beside him. "Can't see the TV from over there. Daniel, you pick."

Daniel titled his head and gaped at his friend. That concussion must have knocked something loose! He was NOT acting like himself. Was it the head injury or was it the woman?

Daniel chose Stripes. He had not yet seen it and had heard that it was very funny. He was not disappointed. He put together some sandwiches and sat the food on the coffee table. Jack had wolfed down two, but Shaboni had not eaten half of one. She had barely touched her lunch, either. Still, she drank a couple of beers and laughed heartily at the movie.

"I am loving this revealing view of American military!" She giggled and punched Jack on the arm.

They had a wonderful evening. By the end of it they were all exhausted.

"I do not have money to pay for a taxi, Daniel. Will you please take me to the hotel?" Shaboni said shortly after the end of the movie.

"You do not have to leave, Shaboni." Jack turned to her. "You are welcome to stay here."

She looked at him warmly. "If you are certain that I will not be imposing I will stay. I have no wish to sleep at the hotel."

"Then it's settled. Daniel, can you show her to the spare room?" Jack pushed himself carefully up from the couch. He went to get her some towels and sweats. Daniel followed him.

"Are you sure about this, Jack?" He sounded alarmed.

"Completely. I need to tell you what she told me this afternoon, but not now." He waved him off. Daniel went back to the living room and showed Shaboni to her room. Jack came behind him and gave her some fresh towels and the sweats.

"If you need anything I'm the first door on the right and Daniel is that one back there." He pointed down the hallway to indicate which rooms he was referring to.

"Thank you so much, Jack. And thank you for everything today. I did not think I would get such a chance as this." She leaned in and kissed him softly on the cheek. Daniel's eyebrows shot up.

"You bet," Jack grinned at her. "Let's go, Daniel. Let the lady get ready for bed."

Daniel followed Jack back to the living room. When they heard the bathroom door shut Daniel said, "Okay, so what did she tell you?"

"Daniel you are not gonna believe this one." Jack shook his head.

"I will never have the chance if you don't get to the point and tell me."

"Temper, Daniel. Okay, the short version is she was Israeli special-forces and then she went to work for the Mossad, which is the Israeli version of the CIA. She was part of a unit of the Sayeret. Her unit, the Shaldag, is one of the most secretive and highly advanced in all of the Sayeret. Apparently she was recruited away from the Shaldag by the Mossad and spent several years infiltrating a terrorist organization in Syria."

"That would explain why she spoke Arabic when she was coming to, instead of Hebrew. She would have to revert to Arabic or she could be discovered," Daniel explained to himself.

"Yeah, that is exactly why. Those spies go through an incredible amount of conditioning to be able to assimilate in such a complete way. Anyway, she was married to some chemist. He was recruited for some classified project going on in the US and told her it was very important. He joined the project and she never heard from him again. She tried to get help from a friend of his who just happens to be a Russian chemist. Apparently he had a file on his computer that indicated he'd been requested for a US program running in Colorado. The Russian freaked out on her when she asked him about it and she went back to Israel. But she'd gotten the name of another guy from the file, who she then met in Prague. This guy told her that her husband was working on a project where he was testing the molecular structure of items that were being found on highly classified missions. He told her that the items were of alien origin. Then he told her that the program was at Star Gaze Mountain or something like that."

Daniel's eyes were hugely round. "Jack, do you realize what this means?" He looked towards the hallway listening to the sound of water running.

"It MEANS that either the SGC was bringing in foreign nationals to work on their little science projects, which I'm fairly sure they weren't, or that the NID, posing as SGC, did it. Either way, someone forgot to mention it to the general and we have a serious security leak with at least a Russian scientist, another one in Prague, and God only knows who else."

"What about Shaboni? I mean, she knows something, but not enough, right?"

"Well she made it this far and I don't have any doubt that she could figure out the remaining piece or two of the puzzle that would lead her to the Stargate."

"What do we do?"

"We call Carter, first, to see if she knows about the Stargate program bringing in foreign nationals. Then we call the general and inform him of the situation." Jack rubbed his forehead.

"What about Shaboni?"

"What about her? She can stay here. In fact I'd much rather have her here than traipsing about all over the mountain trying to find..." He stopped abruptly.

"Jack?" Daniel asked, alarmed at the look on Jack's face. "What is it?"

"The Horn."

"The what?"

"The Horn. That's the name of this mountain. And it has a lookout somewhere. And dollars to doughnuts it's called Star Gazer's lookout or something similar." Jack pushed himself off the couch and started rummaging through a desk in the dining room. "It's here somewhere...," he muttered.

"What are you looking for?"

"A map." He pulled some things out of his way and tossed them on the floor. He dug through a few drawers and finally exclaimed, "Here!" He unfolded the map and Daniel saw a topographical survey of the Colorado Springs area. Jack turned the light on in the dining room and leaned over the table searching the map. He stabbed at it with a finger, "Here it is!"

Daniel bent over the map and looked at the area where Jack's finger was poking the page. It was along the side of The Horn at about 4750 ft near a road that had been labeled Stage Road. "Isn't that the main road up the mountain?" Daniel asked.

"Yep. And THAT is the bend where my truck is lying dead."

"And where we found Shaboni." He looked at it again. "That little outcropping is Star Gazer's Point?"

"Look at the name on it, Daniel. She must have gone looking for it hoping that it was somehow related to what that guy in Prague told her."

"But think about it, Jack. You say she's special-forces. She's obviously pretty smart. Surely she wouldn't think the program her husband was involved in could be found on a topographical map of the area."

"I don't have any idea what she thought. I think she's gotten desperate. But I do know that we found her at Star Gazer's Point. She went there for something."

"Star Gazer's Point. Is it me or is that a really cheesy name?" Daniel commented.

"Oh it's cheesy. But it also sounds a lot like our own little classified operation. Someone heard Cheyenne Mountain and Stargate and got mixed up. The problem is, someone _heard_, Daniel."

"What's her husband's name?" Daniel asked. His wheels had started spinning.

"I don't know. You got her name last night, right?"

"Her last name is Uziel. I'll call Sam and see if she knows the name."

"Go." Jack waved him towards the bedroom where he could use the phone in private.


	5. Chapter 5

*****

"Daniel?" She said with alarm in her voice. She hadn't expected to hear from him at all. "Is the colonel okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine. I need to talk to you about…the, uh, Oz program." He scrunched up his face feeling incredibly stupid. Daniel hated speaking in such silly code. But it was the only acceptable way to discuss the sensitive matter on an unsecured land line. Sam hadn't answered her cell.

"Wouldn't you rather talk about it at my lab, say tomorrow?" a sleepy Major Carter croaked plaintively into the phone.

"Well, no. This is really important. And I think Jack agrees with me that it can't wait."

"Fine, Daniel. You want me to come over there?" He could hear her pushing the covers of her bed off of her.

"No, not here. I'll meet you at the convenience store at the bottom of Stage Road in half an hour," and with that he hung up.

"What'd she say?" Jack asked when Daniel joined him back in the living room.

Daniel sat down on the couch and started putting his shoes on. "She's going to meet me at that store at the bottom of the mountain."

"What, _now_?"

Daniel looked at Jack incredulously, "Well I thought you felt this was important enough to deal with immediately! I even told _her_ that. Are you saying you don't want me to go now?"

Jack thought about it for a minute and then said ruefully, "Was she asleep?"

"Um, well, yes." Daniel went back to putting his shoes on.

"You might as well," Jack shook his head.

"I won't be long. I'll bring back something from the store so you can tell Shaboni I went to buy something if she asks." He got up, grabbed his keys, and left.

Jack lay back against the back of the sofa. His head was still hurting him and a fatigue had set into his bones that made him feel like an old man. How he (they) got into these situations he would never know. But it was clearly some design of fate or some such nonsense because the consistency of it could not be denied.

"I want to go fishing," he moaned to himself.

"Na'am, samak." Shaboni said from behind him. _'Yes, fish.'_

Jack jumped. He hadn't heard the shower cut off. He turned to see her standing there with wet hair combed away from her face cascading down past her shoulders leaving little wet spots where it touched the gray sweatshirt he'd loaned her. She had a rosy color to her cheeks from the heat of the shower and she looked almost childlike in the too-big clothes. He didn't mean to stare, but he couldn't help it.

"Daniel is not here." The way she said Daniel sounded very much like the way Sha're had said his name. "Dan'yel."

"He went to the store," Jack waved his hand at the door to indicate he'd left.

"You told him of my husband." She came around and sat beside Jack on the couch.

Jack had a rare emotion at that moment: a crisis of conscience. He was so used to knowing what he would do, making decisions in a split second, that he was unaccustomed to feeling torn between two desires. If he lied to her what good would come of it? He didn't need to tell her anything to admit the truth. But for some reason he felt in that moment that his life was so full of lies that if he allowed one more he would not only be damned at death, but that he would be damned for the remainder of his life as well. He could remember feeling like this a few times around Sarah and Charlie. That the lies that he was forced to tell and the secrets he was supposed to keep would suffocate him when he neared the goodness that emanated from his wife and child. The lyrics to that haunting song came to him.

_Another night in court, the same old trial_

_The same old questions asked, the same denial_

"Jack?" She turned and faced him. Hair fell forward into her face painting dark streaks down her cheeks.

"Yes, I told him." He didn't meet her eyes.

"It is okay, Jack. I do not mind." She reached out a slender hand and touched a finger ever-so-lightly to the blue-black bruise under his left eye. "There is no reason to be keeping it secret any longer. There is no more time."

Her finger moved up and Jack felt the feather-light touch of her whole hand across his cheek. He closed his eyes to the sensation. It had been longer than he could remember since a woman had touched him like that. He felt light headed. He felt warmth in his chest. He felt joy and sadness warring for dominance. He wanted to surrender to that touch. He wanted to rest in that hand.

Jack opened his eyes and looked at her. She was looking on him with a softness and kindness that burned him it was so lovely.

"Shaboni," he took her hand away from his face and held it gently, "you are a beautiful woman."

"And you are a beautiful man." Her lips curled faintly in an appreciative smile.

Jack felt suffocated by the words, by the weight of their inaccuracy. He knew with every fiber of his being that there was nothing worthy within him to justify her display of affection. He wanted to stop her before she was damaged by the poison that he carried inside. To protect her from the fate of every person who had ever truly cared for him.

"This is a bad idea," he said, patting her hand and moving back from her just a little.

"I do not think so. But I will respect that you do not wish for me to touch you."

"It's not that I don't want you to touch me." _'I've wanted few things more, I think.'_ "But you don't know me."

"I do not have time to know you." The smiling look in her eyes faded.

"Yeah, you keep saying that. That there is no time. What exactly do you mean by that?"

She reached up and started pushing her hair around her head so that it fell over one shoulder then she twisted it around her fingers where it hung down on her chest. As she tightened it a few drops of water were wrung from the deeply wet strands. She held her hand up and let the drops run down her hand, but she did not speak. She acted almost as if she hadn't heard his question.

Jack watched her movements. They were sure and strong and still entirely feminine. He knew she was a soldier, and yet she was a woman. He had seen the same things in Carter, but tried very hard to put them out of his mind. Way too messy to allow his thoughts to go there. But here was a woman with strength, which he had to admit he admired, intelligence, which he also liked, and not only was she not off limits she was expressing that she somehow wanted to share something with him. And he was telling her no.

_'I am a first class jackass,'_ he thought.

Completely against his better judgment and totally contrary to the demands of the demons that tormented his soul he reached out and put his hand into her hair. The wetness of it cooled his hand but he felt his cheeks flush with warmth. She reached up with the hand she'd touched his face with and grabbed his wrist. But it was not to move his hand away. She closed her eyes and moved the hand to her cheek tilting her head into his hand. He winced inwardly knowing that his hands must be rough against her

_'Oh God, that is soft'_

skin. She covered the back of his hand with her free hand. He pulled his arm gently towards him and she scooted on the seat until she was touching his leg with her own. Reaching up with his other hand he cupped her face and pulled her to him, kissing her softly on the forehead. She pulled her legs beneath her, turning to face him fully. She lay across his lap and rested her head on his shoulder with her left hand lying against his cheek. He cradled her in his arms like that smelling her hair and feeling its wetness seep through his shirt for a long time. At long last her hand slipped down and fell limply curled between their chests.

Jack sat there holding her as she slept. He reached up and ran his hands through her drying hair feeling it slip between his fingers. The strands curled around each finger in silky spirals caressing his hand and scenting it with the clean smell of shampoo. His throat felt tight. His heart ached. He tried to memorize every sensation, every nuance of this moment. He knew it was a gift that he didn't deserve and he would not take it for granted. It was a wonderful moment, but he knew for certain it was terrible in the price he would pay for it. The price of such beauty was always agonizingly high.

*****

"All right, Daniel. What is all this about?" Sam was sitting in his car in the parking lot of the convenience store. She did not look happy.

Daniel explained about finding Shaboni and filled her in on the details that Jack had shared with him regarding Shaboni's husband. As he told the story Sam's eyes grew wider. "So for some reason she decided to go walking up The Horn to this Star Gazer's Point to see if she could find anything further," he concluded.

"Daniel, have you and the colonel lost your _minds_?!" She felt like hitting him. "Not only is having that woman at the colonel's house a ridiculous security risk, now you're telling me that her husband may have been working on the Stargate program and she has FIGURED THAT OUT!"

"Whoa, wait a minute. I did not say she had figured it out. And I think considering what information she has been able to obtain it is advantageous that she is at Jack's house. We know what is going on and now we can be directly involved in what she does and does not do from here."

"So why was it so important to talk to me tonight about this?" She put a thumb to her forehead, clearly exhausted.

"Because you have worked with more of the scientists that have been involved with the Stargate program than anyone else. You would know if there had been an Israeli chemist working with the SGC. And because I needed something concrete to take to the general when I call him in the morning to see if we can find out what has happened to Shaboni's husband."

"Daniel, you can't tell her anything," Sam insisted.

"I don't plan on telling her anything, Sam."

"Then why is this so important to you?"

Daniel licked his lips, "First of all, because it is important to Jack. He doesn't ask me to care about much, hell he doesn't usually have to. But he asks me to care about the safety and security of the SGC. And I do. He asks me to understand the nature of the military and the way that classified operations work. And I try. And right now he is asking me to find out if the SGC has been employing foreign nationals or if the NID is doing it."

"Well, there weren't any Israeli nationals on the team of scientists employed to investigate the Stargate before the Abydos mission. And I haven't worked with any chemists outside of the Air Force since the formation of the SGC. So I can't help you."

"Actually, Sam, that is very helpful." Daniel squeezed the bridge of his nose to release some of the pressure that had built up. "That would probably mean that the NID is responsible for this man coming here. And according to Shaboni, for him never coming home."

"Well then if there is nothing else, Daniel, I'd really like to go home and go back to bed."

"Yeah, sure, sorry. Really, Sam," he touched her arm as she started to get out of the car and she stopped, "thank you."

"You're welcome," she said softly. "You look like you could use about a week's sleep, yourself."

"I'm going to go back to Jack's and get some sleep right now. I'll talk to the general tomorrow morning."

"Call me and I'll be there when you talk to him."

Sam got out and went to her car and pulled away. Daniel got out and went inside the store to buy a quart of milk. Then he drove back to Jack's.

Daniel walked in to find Jack asleep on the couch with Shaboni in his arms. He stood there looking at the two of them for a few minutes thinking, _'This was a very bad idea.'_ He had noticed the way that they looked at each other during lunch and then later during the movie. He knew that they had connected. But the dangers of the life they led prevented one from developing attachments. And this particular woman was even more dangerous than just any woman. Daniel knew that Jack was painfully aware of the facts. But he would not begrudge the man the longing for some sense of normalcy in the midst of the insane life they lived.

Ever the vigilant soldier, Jack sensed through his sleep that someone was watching him and awoke. He opened his eyes to find Daniel standing in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen staring at him. Daniel raised his eyebrows and smiled an indulgent smile. His pale blue eyes spoke of understanding and empathy. It was something that Jack usually hated to see directed at him. He generally accepted that Daniel was one of the two smartest people he'd ever met and that he didn't miss much. He also generally accepted that Daniel understood things about him that he would never have attempted to explain. He just didn't acknowledge that he accepted these things. Daniel's look told Jack that he knew the loneliness that was carried as a part of the standard gear for SG1. That he knew the depths of sorrow at having once loved and then lost forever. That nothing felt quite as wonderful as the softness of a woman's skin, the warmth of her breath, and the caress of her hair. And that even they couldn't resist the temptation to revel in the sensation of desiring and being desired in return once in a while. They were not above such things of men.

Usually being understood by Daniel Jackson in that way would drive Jack to distracted annoyance. But tonight it felt good. It felt like a reprieve from having to shoulder all of the terrible knowledge he possessed alone. Daniel was standing there sharing it with him. And tonight he was grateful for the compassion that permeated everything about the young doctor. Because he knew that Daniel would not judge harshly his weakness for this woman curled in his arms. Daniel would be glad for him. And that somehow made it feel less wrong.

The moment of silent communication passed and Jack started to push Shaboni up gently so that he could scoot out from behind her and join Daniel. Daniel jumped from the doorway and aided his friend in positioning the woman to the couch in such a way that Jack could slide out from behind her without waking her. She seemed to be sleeping very deeply and Daniel thought he could feel a rattle to her breathing when his hand was on her back. A frown creased his forehead and he covered her with a blanket.

The walked into the kitchen and Jack sat at the bar. "What did Carter say?"

"She said we are out of our minds."

"She's right, you know?" Jack pointed out.

"She usually is," he smiled. "Anyway, she also said that there were no foreign nationals on the project at the Pentagon and that she hasn't worked with anyone at the SGC who would fit the description of an Israeli chemist."

"So it was the NID." Jack pushed his lips together in an angry line.

"So what do we do?" Daniel asked earnestly.

"Well tomorrow we're going to have to tell Hammond everything we know. He's going to spank me good for letting her come here, but I think he'll understand why now that we know what we know we have to keep her here."

"Do you think he'll be able to find out what happened to her husband?"

"I don't know if he'll be interested in trying. But even if he is we can't tell her anything." Jack pushed himself away from the bar and stood up slowly. He still felt terrible and it was way past time to go to bed. "I'm going to put Shaboni in the bed and then I'm going to go crawl under mine."

"Let me do it. You have already done way more than you should have today. Janet is going to kill me for not making sure you stayed on the couch all week."

Jack was in no mood to argue. He waved a hand at Daniel and stumbled off to bed. He barely made it beneath the covers before a heavy black sleep took him.

Daniel went back to the living room and gently slid his arms beneath Shaboni's legs and shoulders. He lifted her surprised, again, at how heavy she was. She looked tall yet slight to the eyes, but her frame was as solid as anything Daniel had ever lifted. She didn't make a sound or even stir as he carried her into the bedroom. He was grateful she hadn't tried to choke him again. As he walked he could feel the crackling and rattling of her chest as she breathed. He didn't hear audible wheezing, which was good, but he knew from experience that the fluid in her lungs was only going to get worse if she didn't get some medical attention. _'It's probably pneumonia,' _he thought. He pulled the covers back on the bed and then laid her down softly. He covered her up and then went to the room that had been his bedroom when he'd first come back from Abydos. He kicked off his shoes and pants and crawled under the covers. After the day they'd had it was no wonder they all fell asleep and slept like stones.

At least that was until Daniel was awoken by the unmistakable sound of someone retching in the bathroom. He got up to investigate. He pulled on his pants, went to the door, and found it closed so he knocked lightly. The person inside either didn't hear or couldn't answer so he twisted the knob and pushed the door open to find Shaboni kneeling and clutching the toilet seat with one hand while holding her hair out of her face with the other. The smell of vomit was powerful and turned his stomach, but then he noticed something else. His breath caught in his throat and it wasn't from the smell. There was blood on her mouth and what looked like coffee grounds on the rim of the toilet. Daniel opened the door all the way, startling her.

"Ah God, Shaboni!" he exclaimed as he started hunting for a clean washcloth. "We have to get you to the hospital!" He found one and started running water in the sink to wet it. He let the water run so that it would heat up, not wanting to give her a freezing cold washcloth. She shook her head furiously, her eyes large and shining with fear. Unable to speak, she was telling him with every bit of body language that existed that she would not go to the hospital. He started to hand her the washcloth when she started retching again. Daniel bent down and took her hair for her. He got on his knees behind her and held her as she vomited again and again. She was shuddering violently and tears cascaded down her cheeks. When the powerful heaving subsided enough for her to breath she moaned sickeningly. Daniel held the lukewarm rag to her hand and she put it to her face wiping away blood and vomit and tears. She sat there with Daniel holding her with one arm and holding her hair with his other hand. After a minute or so she reached up and flushed the toilet then sat there trembling. The shaking subsided a little and she slumped against Daniel who eased her carefully to the floor.

"Please do not take me away from here," her voice was barely above a whisper. Daniel looked at the reddish brown substance on the toilet. He had seen the wounded vomit blood before and he knew exactly what it looked like. He didn't know if this was from the accident or not, but he knew that she was in serious trouble and keeping her here was likely killing her. He took the washcloth from her hands and wiped the toilet's surface.

"Shaboni, why won't you agree to go to the doctor?" He got her a clean dry washcloth and handed it to her as he sat down next to her pale fragile figure.

"Because there is nothing they can do, Daniel." The sound of her saying his name stirred memories he would have rather kept buried. It was a beautiful sound, unexpected and sweet.

"What do you mean? What is wrong with you?" he asked earnestly.

"Please, just do not take me away from here." She coughed and the sound of it was like she was being ripped from the inside out. She shuddered a little and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. There was a smear of blood on it as she laid the hand over her eyes to shield them from the light in the bathroom.

He was frustrated with her for refusing to tell them what was wrong with her. But she seemed resolute to say nothing. He felt torn between wanting to honor Jack's promise to her and wanting to get her the help she so obviously needed. She seemed to be better for the moment so he decided he would approach Jack about it again in the morning. For now he helped Shaboni get back to her bed. She seemed to be sinking into a fitful feverish sleep. He picked her up again and carried her back to bed. As he put the covers back up over her she murmured, "Jack."

Daniel had a much harder time going to back to sleep. Every so often he would hear her coughing thickly from her room. He would just be starting to drop off and her coughing would pull him back. Surely Jack knew how sick she was. And it was becoming increasingly clear it had nothing to do with the accident. For all intents and purposes the accident had barely injured her at all.


	6. Chapter 6

*****

Way before he was ready, the sun was up and Daniel was climbing blearily out of bed. He pulled his pants on and went to the bathroom to take a shower. He let the hot water run over his face to wake him enough that he could make it to the kitchen to brew some coffee. Shaboni and Jack were still asleep and he was going to let them both stay that way as long as possible. He wasn't looking forward to his conversation with General Hammond, either. To his surprise when he got to the kitchen he found a pot of coffee already brewed. He went and looked in Jack's room and found him still snoring away. He decided to check the deck. He found Shaboni curled up in a blanket sitting on the deck swing sipping a cup of coffee.

"Good morning. I didn't hear you get up." Daniel stood at the door not wanting to go outside into the chilled air with wet hair and bare feet.

"Hello. I made coffee," she smiled at him.

"I see. Um, how are you feeling?" he asked frowning slightly.

"I am feeling fine. Much better from last night. I am feeling hungry and thirsty," she smiled at him happily.

"Would you like some breakfast?"

"I would, yes," she nodded.

So he turned and went back inside and started making eggs and ham with toast for everyone. He tried to keep it quiet so that he wouldn't wake Jack, but searching for a pot he banged around a little too much and soon Jack came wandering into the kitchen with his hair sticking out in all directions and scratching his head.

"Hey, Jack. Hungry?" he raised his eyebrows in question.

"Starving." Jack dropped into a chair.

"Did you sleep well?" Daniel asked him

"Too well." It was not something he liked to make a habit of, sleeping so soundly that he lost track of where he was.

"I'm going to the SGC as soon as I eat."

"What do you mean, 'I'? WE are going." Jack looked at him with that I'm-in-charge-here look he had to take with Daniel sometimes.

"Jack, I really think you should stay here with Shaboni. She can't come with us and she shouldn't be alone," Daniel explained.

He hadn't thought of that. Damn. He hated when he missed something as obvious as that. He hated it even more when Daniel had to point it out to him. _'Blame it on the head injury,'_ he reasoned. "Right, I knew that," he mumbled.

"She had a rough night," Daniel said as he prepared a pan for the eggs. He looked up over the rim of his glasses to see how his words were impressing Jack.

"I'm not surprised. She was awfully sick yesterday." Apparently he wasn't biting and Daniel didn't really desire explaining to Jack how he hadn't awakened him when she was vomiting gastrointestinal blood. She seemed a lot better this morning and there was no reason to infuriate the man.

"She's outside, by the way," Daniel told him.

"What do you mean, _'by the way'_?"

"I mean, oh, and by...the...way...she is sitting outside." He looked at Jack pointedly and inclined his head towards the back door. "She made coffee." Daniel was turning eggs in the pan and the whole house was starting to fill up with the aroma of breakfast.

"Give me some, will ya'?"

Daniel hurriedly poured him a cup with one hand while holding the pan of eggs in the other. He sat it down in front of Jack and sloshed some on the counter.

"Thanks." He took the cup and went to the back door. Shaboni was sitting wrapped in a heavy blanket on the deck swing. She had her legs tucked underneath her in a pose that was becoming comfortably familiar to Jack.

"Good morning!" he said cheerfully.

"Hello, Jack," she smiled warmly. Jack thought that she looked even more tired than she'd been the night before. The beautiful touch of rose that had been in her cheeks was completely gone. "Did you rest well?"

"I haven't slept that well since the 70s." He remarked taking a deep swig of his coffee. It was perfect. He sat down next to her on the swing and she promptly rested her head on his shoulder. Again he was astonished at how such a simple gesture could fill him with thoughts and feelings that were intense beyond words. He sat with her enjoying the morning and their coffee until the sound of Daniel opening the sliding door jarred them from their quiet.

"Breakfast," he explained when he observed their startled expressions. He thought he detected a trace of..._guilt?_... on Jack's face.

Daniel sat the food before them and they ate breakfast in relative quiet. Daniel and Jack were both pleased to see that Shaboni ate a decent amount of breakfast. Apparently she was feeling better. Jack was starting to think that maybe a good night's rest had done her as much good as she had claimed it would. Daniel decided that for the time being he wouldn't mention how sick she'd been during the night.

After they ate Daniel put his shoes on and left for Cheyenne Mountain. Shaboni turned to Jack and asked him, "He is going somewhere."

"He's going to work."

*****

"Come in, Dr. Jackson."

Daniel entered the general's office with some trepidation. He was not looking forward to this conversation. He had put it off as long as he dared, even stopping by Teal'c's quarters to inform him of the situation first, only to find that he had gone to Chulak for the remainder of the week. He would much rather have had Jack here to tell the general about Shaboni because Jack was pretty much able to say anything to the man. Of course, Jack could say pretty much anything to anybody because he didn't worry too much about decorum or politics. In fact, he dealt with politics like he dealt with anything stubborn and unpleasant in his path: running rough shod over it, blasting it to bits with his P90 if at all possible.

Daniel came in and stood until he was invited to sit.

"Aren't you supposed to be at Colonel O'Neill's?"

"Um, yes, Sir. I am staying there. And I'll be going back but..." he stopped for a moment to gather his thoughts (nerve).

"Well, what can I do for you, then?"

"Something has come to our attention that you need to be aware of."

"Go on," he intoned patiently.

"Well, on the way to Jack's yesterday we stopped to look at Jack's truck. It was still at the scene of the accident. We should really have someone come and tow it." Yep, he came all the way back to the mountain to tell the general that Jack's truck hadn't been towed yet.

"Dr. Jackson, is there any particular reason you wanted to speak to me about this?"

"Oh yes, Sir, sorry. It is about the woman he hit in the accident, Shaboni. She was at the site of the accident when we arrived. She was, uh, not feeling well, but she refused to be taken to the hospital so Jack let her come back to his place."

"He did what?!"

"Just hear me out, this turns out to be a very good thing. We found out why she was up on the mountain...twice." He paused. "She apparently was looking for her husband, who is some Israeli chemist. He was apparently requested to participate in a program that was going on in Colorado Springs that was highly classified."

At that moment Major Carter knocking on the door interrupted them.

"Come in," the general answered.

"Daniel!" she looked surprised.

"I was just telling him about Shaboni," he explained.

"Major, you are aware of the actions of Colonel O'Neill and Dr. Jackson?" the general demanded.

"Yes, Sir. Daniel called me last night and we met and discussed the situation. I thought they would call me and we would come to you together." She shot Daniel a look.

The general was getting a little rosy in the cheeks as he said, "Would somebody please start making some sense here!"

Daniel shrugged at Sam, "I hadn't gotten very far."

Sam decided to cut to the chase, knowing that Daniel's meanderings would only serve to further irritate the impatient man. When she was finished the general sat back digesting the implications of her words. "Major, we have not at any time employed an Israeli chemist at the SGC."

"No, Sir. And the program that I worked on at the Pentagon was strictly military personnel. Sir, I believe it was the NID posing as the SGC, otherwise they wouldn't have mentioned anything about Colorado Springs. They were clearly trying to make it look like it was us."

General Hammond looked at Sam, and then he looked at Daniel. "Well I seriously doubt the United States Air Force would be hiring foreign nationals to do molecular analysis on the most highly classified operation in the history of the word CLASSIFIED," he groused. "So now this woman is staying at Colonel O'Neill's house?"

"Yes, Jack felt that under the circumstances it would be best if we kept an eye on her and the best way for him to do that was, well, if she was right, um, under...his...nose." He frowned a little at the way that came out.

The general continued to contemplate the situation. "We need to find out who this Russian chemist is that didn't participate."

"Well, we can't ask her without arousing her suspicions," Daniel pointed out.

"I think I can make a few calls." Hammond turned away from them deep in thought. "Dr. Jackson you need to get back to the colonel's house and continue with what you're doing. Let me see what I can find out." He stood up and said, "Dismissed." Sam and Daniel rose and left his office.

"You going back to the Colonel's?" Sam asked as they headed for the elevators.

"Yeah. He'd never say it but he still feels lousy. You?"

"I'm going to my lab to see what I can dig up. I think there is a favor or two I haven't used up since my Pentagon days."

"Happy hunting," he called after her as she hurried off towards her lab.

"At least I'm not babysitting the colonel!" she called over her shoulder laughing.

*****

The stream next to Jack's house had shrunk to a shallow trickle from a lack of rain. The autumn months were usually lean for fishing, but that never stopped Jack before. After all, it had nothing to do with actually catching fish. He had hoped to share the rare joy and peace of fishing with Shaboni, but her cough convinced him they should be staying indoors. She had finished off four cups of coffee that morning and gone into the bathroom to take another shower. The running water didn't drown out the sound of her coughing and gagging and spitting. Jack had sat there silently debating with himself on when, exactly, he was going to force the issue and carry her, bodily, to the hospital. He tried with all that was in him to believe that the only reason she didn't want to go was that she hated hospitals and doctors in much the same way that he hated hospitals and doctors. But his instincts were talking to him. He had that twitch between his shoulder blades. It said that this was not just some ornery refusal to be fussed over. They said that her comments about not having any time were the key to this little mystery. That and perhaps someone was looking for her: the men from the incident in Prague perhaps.

And they said that if she didn't go to the hospital she was going to...

He shook his head. He was overreacting. She was not dying. He'd seen Daniel sicker than she with nothing more than a sinus infection. Hadn't he?

No. Not really. But it sounded good as rationalizations went. And when it came to rationalizing his choices, he could justify with the most astute of politicians. _'Of course my wife had to leave. It was best for both of us. I didn't have to see her suffer and she didn't have to watch me self-destruct. It was better for all concerned.' _Of course, it was a crock of shit, but it sounded good.

The shower turned off and Shaboni came out in the fresh pair of sweats that he'd nicked from the back of his closet. He was going to have to wash her clothes, or maybe get Daniel to drive to her hotel and get her something comfortable to wear. As it had the night before, her hair hung in heavy ringlets past her shoulders leaving weepy wet streaks in the blue sweatshirt that hung sloppily on her thin frame. She sat on the sofa next to Jack and tucked her bare feet underneath her in the way that she found so comfortable.

"You feeling any better?" he asked her.

"Yes, much. I like the hot steam of the shower." She took a deep breath and let it out in a slow and relaxing sound. "I was thinking that I must be going to the hotel to get some clean clothes and the other things I have left there."

"When Daniel gets back we can go get your stuff."

"I must be looking for what happened to my husband, Jack. I can not stay sitting here doing nothing." She looked at him steadily.

"You got hit by a truck, you're sick, and you have no where else to go. Take it easy for a few days. Get some rest. Then maybe I can help you find what happened to your husband." Jack paused, then he said, "What was his name?"

She closed her eyes and answered him, "Emil."

They sat there on the couch like that for a while not saying anything and not moving until suddenly she jumped up and grabbed the CD that had fallen out of his bag the day before. "I want to hear this."

He started to stop her, but for some reason did not. She bent over to peer at the stereo he had sitting on a table in the living room. She inspected the various knobs and buttons and then turned it on and inserted the CD, starting it playing as if she'd always owned the device. She set the volume to a moderate level and sat herself down in front of the stereo speakers and listened. When the first song came on she closed her eyes and Jack watched her absorb the lean sound of the musician's voice. She occasionally would reach up and run her hands through her hair as if trying to coax it dry. Watching her enjoy the music was as sumptuous an activity as Jack could imagine. That was until the second song came on and hearing the sound of strings and mystic Indian vocals set to a driving electronic rhythm she seemed to involuntarily come to her feet and begin to sway.

Jack's mouth went dry. She had her back to him and placed one foot out at a careful and deliberate angle then lifted her hips in a motion that gave the impression of them breathing in time to the music. Her hands rose over her head and her body seemed to come fluidly alive. It was a distinctly Arabic dance. Every movement was precise and flawlessly graceful. She painted the sounds within the music with the lines and contours of her body. When she raised her hands high over her head her sweatshirt lifted to reveal a slender waist that sloped to full round hips. She had rolled the band of the pants up to keep them in place and they hung across her hips instead of her waist, revealing the small of her back. On her back was an obvious patch of scar tissue that looked to Jack to have been caused by a burn. He wondered what had caused it. The whole of her dancing was slow and purposeful. It didn't appear hurried or even strenuous. Jack was utterly mesmerized. Shaboni spun around and smiled at him, rolling and undulating her hips, then turned her back to him again and continued dancing in her own world.

Suddenly the magic ended as a spasm of pain twisted her tall figure. She pitched forward and grabbed the table, jarring it and causing the music to skip. She began gasping for air and then coughing. As she coughed she sank to her knees and Jack rose to his feet. He thought to give her a hand, but she shooed him off and pounded the carpet in frustration.

Jack stopped the music and squatted down carefully trying not to upset his knee or irritate his head.

"No, don't stop it *cough* I really want *cough* to hear *cough cough* it," she finally said.

"Uh huh. Yeah, well, you don't need any more excitement," he frowned at her.

"Please. Just play it. I will sit. I have not listened to music in many months." She was breathing rapidly but the coughing had subsided.

He couldn't think of a good reason to say no. He reached up and turned the CD back on and took her hand. He led her to the couch where she sat and he sat next to her. She laid her head against the back of the sofa and tried to catch her breath. Jack eyed her worriedly. What had been a vibrant and oh-so-alive face moments ago now looked pinched and pained. She was entirely too pale.

Jack reached up and touched the spot on his temple that was tender and swollen. It was definitely getting better. He had inspected his knee thoroughly the night before and knew it was black blue and brown from where he'd apparently dropped onto a rock. It was stiff, but it was clearly just a bruise. The other sore muscles he'd suffered from the seizure seemed to have improved slightly with a very hot shower and a good night's rest. All in all, he realized, for having completely ruined his truck, he came out pretty good. And he was sure that Shaboni's coughing had nothing to do with the accident, but she was obviously determined to avoid explaining herself.

The music was actually pretty relaxing and Shaboni seemed to be going with it. Jack reached up and gathered her in a gentle hug coaxing her to rest her head on him. She did and looked up at him with shimmering eyes that expressed affection and gratitude. He winked at her. She rewarded him with a grin bright as a sunrise. His heart gave a little flutter and he smiled back.

She closed her eyes and tapped her foot in time to the music. Jack was actually relaxing himself, the latest reminders of her condition fading into memory. After a time he noticed her foot had stopped tapping and stretched his head around to see her face. She was asleep, again. She was obviously needing a lot of sleep. He decided not to bother her by moving to shut the music off. He was able to reach a blanket lying over the side of sofa and he covered her as much as he could.

They lay there like that for a while. The music continued to play. Suddenly Jack was aware that the song he so deeply didn't want to hear was about to play. He started to push her off to get it, but she stirred and he didn't want to wake her.

The song was called Ghost Story. It told the story of so many of his nights since Sarah had left. So many nights he'd spent alone knowing that he'd driven her away. The nights he had learned to rationalize how much better it was for her to have a chance at a life with someone who could be fully there, and not just a shadow of a person. He had justified his cruel, selfish treatment of her saying to himself that driving her away had given her a new life free from the only thing he had to offer her: pain.

_I watched the western sky, the sun is sinking_

_The geese are flying south, it sets me thinking_

_I did not miss you much, I did not suffer_

_What did not kill me, just made me tougher_

_I felt the winter come, his icy sinews_

_Now in the firelight, the case continues_

_Another night in court, the same old trial_

_The same old questions asked, the same denial_

_The shadows close me round, like jury members_

_I look for answers in, the fire's embers_

_Why was I missing then, that whole December_

_I gave my usual line, I don't remember_

_Another winter comes, His icy fingers creep_

_Into these bones of mine, these memories never sleep_

_And all these differences, a cloak I borrowed_

_We kept our differences, why should it follow that_

_I must have loved you?_

_What is the force that binds the stars?_

_I wore this mask to hide my scars_

_What is the power that pulls the tides_

_Never could find a place to hide_

_What moves the Earth around the Sun_

_What could I do but run and run and run_

_Afraid to love, afraid to fail_

_A mast without a sail_

_The moon's a fingernail, and slowly sinking_

_Another day begins, and now I'm thinking_

_That this indifference was my invention_

_When everything I did sought your attention_

_You were my compass star_

_You were my measure_

_You were a pirate's map_

_A buried treasure_

_If this was all correct_

_The last thing I'd expect_

_The prosecution rests_

_It's time that I confess_

_I must have loved you._

_I must have loved you..._

The song played. Images of Sarah and Charlie invaded his mind. But something changed. Something had shifted. Suddenly instead of the unending and soul sucking pain he always felt at the thought of their faces there was something more like breathing, less like dying.

_'Let's see, Jack. Maybe you hit your head so hard you forgot what a miserable ass you are and how you killed her son and then broke her heart by refusing to live yourself.' _

He knew he'd worn the guilt he felt over Charlie's death as a defensive shield. He'd used it in part to keep her from vocalizing the blame she felt towards him. That if, perhaps, he felt guilty enough to die that she wouldn't look at him with eyes that spoke of her private hell and his culpability in its creation. Oh, the guilt had been real enough. But he'd wielded it like a weapon and pierced the remaining heart she had for him with it. All the while telling himself what a favor he was doing her.

These were the conclusions he'd reached in the four years since his first mission to Abydos. The years of regular nightly trials where he held court against himself. And the years that he'd never once allowed himself to feel anything but guilt. Guilt over the death of his son and the death of his marriage. But there had been something left underneath and suddenly he was feeling it. As he heard the last verses of the song he was remembering something he'd refused himself as much as he'd refused Sarah:

His love for her.

It was the first time he could recall feeling the love he'd known since he was a young man in years. Even that night at the hospital, the last time he had seen her, he had worried for her, but the walls had been there. Now he was feeling it. And it felt kind of good. He looked at the dark-haired woman resting against him and wondered how her presence could free something so frighteningly good in his heart. She had somehow loosed a feeling he'd banished from his conscious world in some faulty justification of his actions just by being near him. Or was it by looking at him with those stormy eyes of hers…or the sunny smile that beat the storm back?

Jack sat there and thought of Sarah. He thought of the day they met. The day they married. The day that she told him she was pregnant. The day that Charlie was born. And he stopped there. Those were all good memories. Memories that he'd denied himself out of an obstinate, obligatory sense of sacrifice. Because he'd deemed himself unworthy of enjoying the good times. Of not having the right to feel the love he'd once known for the mother of his child.

His love for Sarah had not been as pure and instinctual as it had been with Charlie. It had been a love that he'd nurtured from a hormonal infatuation to a place where friendship had replaced fantasy. He had loved her by choice when he was away and beautiful women had thrown themselves at him to get business for the brothels. He had loved her by choice when he'd been in an Iraqi prison and needed a reason to hang onto his sanity. She had deserved to get all of him back. And he'd chosen to fight for her. Yes, his love for Sarah had been his choice.

Just like it had been his choice to take it away.

And then she was gone. And suddenly Jack was filled with a grief over the loss of her that clawed at his throat and made him suck air. He had never grieved the loss of his wife because he'd never allowed himself to feel anything about her, except that he owed her whatever life she chose, that being a life without him.

He took several deep breaths trying to calm himself. It was clear to Jack that something had changed in him this day. He'd been mistaken that he never held onto her when she left. Refusing to feel anything at all, the grief had never been attended to. He was finally letting Sarah go. Not forcing her out, releasing her. And the sense of loss was great, but something was replacing that sense. It was a feeling of rightness. That something right was happening. And that thought made him more tense than he had felt in any non-combat situation that he could remember.

"Hey Jack." Daniel's voice startled the colonel. He hadn't heard the CD stop playing and he hadn't heard Daniel come in the house. He was definitely getting a little too careless these last couple of days.

"Hi Daniel," he said in a blatantly forced upbeat tone.

"Busy?" Daniel asked with a chiding grin.

"Not particularly. What's up?"

Daniel inclined his head to indicate that he wanted to go into the other room. Shaboni looked to be sound asleep, but he didn't want to run the risk that she wasn't. Jack muttered something under his breath and began gently pushing her off him. Once he got out from behind her he laid her gently down. The two men carefully walked into the other room.

"So you talked to Hammond?"

"Yeah. He reacted pretty much like you thought he would."

"As in, he made like he'd ring my neck until you explained how it was all in everyone's best interest that we keep Shaboni under close guard without letting her in on the fact that she is being guarded."

Daniel blinked, adopted a wry grin and said, "Well, yes."

"So what now?"

"Now Sam is making a few calls and the General is making a few calls and we wait until we hear from them."

"What did Teal'c have to say?"

"Teal'c is on Chulak. I don't see that there is any reason to disturb his visit."

"Nah, probably not. But I bet he'd laugh, anyway."

"Jack, Teal'c doesn't laugh."

"Just 'cause you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there."

"Uh huh." Daniel nodded. "How's she doing?" he jerked his head towards the living room.

"She's still sick. She drank a bunch of coffee this morning and I think she coughed up a lung in the shower." Jack winced, scrunching up his face as he remembered the sound of it.

"She's going to have to at least see a doctor."

"I've tried. She won't. I don't know what her deal is, there, but she isn't gonna go willingly," Jack shook his head. "We need to go get her stuff from the hotel when she wakes up," he added.

Daniel sighed heavily. "How are you doing?"

Jack thought briefly about the incredible moment of emotional clarity he'd had just before Daniel showed up.

"Jack?"

"I'm fine Daniel. In fact, I feel pretty damned good." Jack gave Daniel a look that surprised them both. Something real and maybe a little vulnerable. Then the regular stony-faced Jack was back in place leaving Daniel to wonder what he'd just missed.

"Okay, then. I'm going to make lunch."

Daniel went to the kitchen and pulled some stuff out of the refrigerator and started making lunch. Jack walked through the living room, stopping to watch Shaboni sleep for a minute making sure that all was well, then continuing to the deck. He stepped outside and smelled the clean fall air. The sky was clouding up to the west and the wind was rustling the leaves like a telegraph announcing a coming storm.

"Looks like rain," he mumbled to himself.


	7. Chapter 7

*****

Daniel had turned the ringer on his cell phone off but set it to vibrate. He had it in his pants' pocket when it startled him by buzzing against his leg. He jumped and grabbed at it. Jack noticed and gave him a questioning look.

"Dr. Jackson," he answered. He sat there quietly for a second and then excused himself from the room, wanting to be able to speak openly without disturbing Shaboni who was still sleeping on the couch in the living room.

When he was done he came back and stood in the doorway motioning Jack to follow him. They went into the kitchen where Jack could still keep an eye on the couch.

"That was Sam. She got in touch with someone at the Pentagon who apparently knew of an Israeli chemist working on a project in, guess where?"

"Utah?" Jack had already suspected that this would be what they would discover.

"You guessed it. They brought in four chemists from four different countries and had them all working at different facilities. One was in Arizona. One was in Washington. One was somewhere in Texas, and one was in Utah." Jack thought back to their little trip to Utah where they'd found the NID using the Stargate that was supposed to be in storage and posing as the SGC.

"So do we know if it was the NID or if it was the _NID_?" Jack asked holding up fingers and making quotes in the air around the latter "NID", referring to the faction within the NID that they'd had to deal with in Utah.

"Sam doesn't know anything beyond the chemists who were recruited and where they were located."

"Were located?" Jack asked.

"They're gone. All four of them apparently disappeared at the same time just after the Touchstone incident. The guy Sam talked with seemed to think there was someone who would know what happened to them."

"And I don't want to know who that would be, do I?"

"I don't have to tell you, if you'd prefer."

"Mayborne."

"Yup."

"Beautiful," he muttered sarcastically. "Does Hammond have this information?"

"He does. He has made a few calls on his own. I think he's trying to get in touch with Mayborne right now. We still don't know who all was actually invited to participate. The methods to recruit Shaboni's husband indicate that NID was claiming to be the SGC instead of presenting themselves as a civilian organization."

"There's a novel idea. So we wait."

"We wait."

"Beautiful," he said again.

No one noticed that Shaboni had awoken because she never opened her eyes. But if they'd been close enough they could have seen the involuntary clenching of her jaw when she heard them talking about an Israeli chemist and maybe they would have noticed the clenching of her fist when they spoke of her husband having gone missing after something called the "Touchstone incident". But they'd left the room and didn't notice. If they had they might have foreseen what she would do next.

The fact that Jack and Daniel had information about her husband at all would have been a good thing to her but for one terrible fact. The poisons in her blood were beginning to damage her brain and the reaction she had came from a hazy and turbulent sea of fear and suspicion that was the product of the early stages of a degenerative encephalopathy; her own mind was tearing itself apart. Not even she would have known that there would be moments where she would be perfectly fine cognitively, but then there'd be moments like these where she wasn't herself. She was suddenly certain that these two men had orchestrated the incident with the truck and that this was nothing more than a continuation of the attack that had left her running for her life back in Prague. Her heart was pounding and she knew that if she didn't get away quickly she would undoubtedly be killed. Perhaps they'd only kept her alive this long to discover how much she knew. Now that they had all the information she'd had they would surely kill her.

Something lucid within her warred with her paranoia insisting that for some reason Jack was trying to help her. That because he was an Air Force Colonel he would know people who could help her find out what happened. She had heard him say a name: Mayborne. This Mayborne must know something.

Jack and Daniel were still in the kitchen. She had to figure out how to find this Mayborne. She tried to think harder. She knew that all her training and experience should be directing her, telling her what to do, but it was like she was separated in two. One half of her knew that she had the knowledge to complete her mission. The other half she knew could act on that knowledge, but she couldn't make the two parts of herself connect so that she could work it out. Fearing her mind was failing her she decided she simply had to get away in case her life really was in danger here. She would sort it out better once she got alone.

Alone was safe. She started pushing herself up from the couch intending to make for the back door and head off into the woods. She noticed that it was lightning in the distance and made a mental note that she would need to find shelter before it rained.

Her movement caught Jack's eye and he walked back into the living room. "Hey, sleeping beauty!" he smiled warmly at her. She did not return his smile.

"You said we would go to my hotel." Something in her tone was off, way off.

Jack turned his head to the side slightly and said very slowly, "Yeah."

"I wish to be returning there now," she started to rise.

"Okay. Let me get Daniel and he can drive us," Jack said slowly and deliberately. He'd seen that look in her eyes. It was the same dissociated look she'd had when she'd woken up after he'd hit her. He suddenly wondered if she had a head injury that had been missed and now it was coming back to haunt them.

"No. I wish to return there alone." She stood up.

Jack was very alarmed. She didn't bear any resemblance to the woman who'd been dancing in this very same room earlier. She didn't bear any resemblance to the woman who'd been in his home these two days. He didn't need to be reminded that she was dangerous if she felt threatened. And he got the distinct feeling that she felt threatened. Jack stepped backwards from her to allow her some space.

"Shaboni, you don't seem to be feeling quite like your usual sweet self. What do you say we just let Daniel drive us all three to the hotel and you can get whatever you want?" He was trying to be casual, but the tension in the room stretched taut.

She regarded him suspiciously for a second and seemed to soften a bit. "Very well, I believe that would be acceptable. First I need to use the bathroom." She walked very guardedly and very lightly to the bathroom at the end of the hall. Jack listened but didn't hear the sound of the lock engaging.

"Daniel, come here!" Jack demanded as forcefully as he could without yelling it.

"What?" Daniel came into the room hurriedly.

"Something is up. Shaboni is acting like she's gone down the rabbit hole," Jack gestured toward the bathroom.

"What do you mean?"

Jack didn't know how to describe it. He just knew something was very wrong. "She wanted to go back to her hotel all of a sudden. She's in a big hurry and she doesn't want us to take her there."

"Do you think she heard us talking?"

"Possibly. But if she had I think she'd be more likely to be asking questions instead of trying to get out of here."

"How long has she been in there?" Daniel asked.

"Less than a minute." Jack stopped and listened intently. He heard nothing. He started walking towards the door. There was no sound of movement coming from inside the bathroom at all.

"Shaboni?" he called.

There was no answer.

"You ok?"

Jack motioned with his hands to Daniel to start going around the outside of the house through the back door. The bathroom was on the ground level of the house, but the layout would require Daniel to go down the deck steps and then climb back up a hill. Daniel took off swiftly and silently.

Jack knocked on the door to the bathroom. There was no answer. He tried the knob and found it locked. He'd listened for her to lock the door, but not heard it. His gut was a knotted with alarm. He kicked once and shattered the frame around the lock busting the wooden door open. She was not in the bathroom. He ran to the open window and looked out.

Daniel was lying face down in the leaves. A flash of lightning illuminated a shadowy figure running for the woods. Jack ran back through the house and down the steps. He turned towards the side of the house where Daniel was lying and stopped long enough to check that Daniel was only knocked out. Then he took off into the woods after Shaboni. He wasn't sure what he was going to do when he caught up with her, but he knew that if she kept going in the direction she was heading in the condition she was in she would probably head straight off the cliff in the darkness.

Lightning flashed regularly and a few cold raindrops began to splash his face. He slowed to an accelerated walk keeping an eye out around every tree for the blow intended to put him alongside Daniel. He could not see Shaboni but he would occasionally hear twigs snap directly ahead of him, so he knew he was going in the right direction. Soon the rain began to fall steadily and it was much harder to hear. The rain was cold, but the lightning flashed hot, angry streaks across the sky. Thunder rolled over the mountain like boulder striking boulder. He was losing her.

Something about that thought clenched in his gut in a most unexpected way. He pushed it aside so he could focus. He had slowed to a very careful advance and had lost all trace of her trail when he heard a cough ahead and slightly to his right. He turned to face the direction of the sound and took two steps when a flash of lightning illuminated not one but two figures standing directly ahead of him about thirty yards. The forking of light lasted long enough for him to see Shaboni drop into an attack-ready crouch as she squared off against the unknown man standing there.

Jack halted his approach. Keeping a bead on the two of them, he started to shift his position to give himself some cover. He had no weapon, Daniel was lying unconscious in the rain at the house, and Jack was certain that whoever this guy was, he was not alone. He started making a wide circle around to their position when he spotted vague movement out of the corner of his eye. He spun to defend against the blow, but it was too late. There was a crunching sound as something distinctly metal and heavy slammed against his skull. There was no pain and no sound. He could still see as he crashed to the ground. The rain was falling on his cheek and back in huge heavy drops. He could not hear what was happening, but he saw Shaboni illuminated once again by unearthly light flashing all around. She was now on the ground with the guy. They were grappling with something. There was another shorter flash and Jack saw Shaboni go very, very still. He tried to push himself up with his hands. There was a boot on his hand. _'OW!' _he thought. Lightning flashed again and he could see a figure pulling Shaboni off the ground. Then the darkness fell. And when it fell it was thicker than the rain.

Daniel awoke with a start. The alarm he'd felt as he saw a man standing at the back of Jack's house was fresh and washed over him sending his stomach to his throat. He pushed himself to his knees and tried to sort out what he was doing laying on a carpet of dead leaves in the pouring rain. His glasses were nowhere to be seen. He started feeling around for them. He had been going to the window, he remembered. Shaboni, Jack said, had been acting funny. He thought she was going to climb out the bathroom window and take off. As he'd come around the corner he'd seen her dropping to the ground and then running for the woods, but before he could call out to her everything had gone sideways and then dark.

"Oh yeah," he muttered. He reached up and felt the back of his head. The rain had plastered his short hair to his head, which accentuated the rising linear welt across the right side of the back of his skull. He could tell when he touched it that there was a gash within it, but the rain and the dark made it impossible to see if he'd been bleeding. He tried to get to his feet. The pain that had been lurking at the edges of his awareness rushed forward to fill his consciousness with dizzying speed. He swayed and leaned out for the house. Propping himself against the solidity of the cabin he took a few deep breaths trying to clear his head. The dizziness and pain subsided enough and he resumed his search for his glasses. A flash of lightning illuminated the ground all around him and he saw they were lying about five feet away. He bent to retrieve them, staggered again by the intense pain in his head.

Daniel made his way slowly back to the house. He started to go inside but then thought better of it. Whoever had hit him was either still here or gone, but he didn't want to take the chance of going inside without a weapon. He fished around the underside of the deck for something, finding a baseball bat. He gripped it, feeling its weight and balance. He went back to the deck and slid the door open slowly. He walked from room to room carefully, noticing the smashed bathroom door and splintered wood on the floor. He checked the house thoroughly and found no one.

He grabbed a coat from the hall closet and started out the back door. He started into the woods, fishing in his pocket for his cell phone. He quickly called Sam.

"Carter," she answered.

"Sam, we need backup at Jack's house. I think it's the NID," he hissed as loudly into the phone as he dared.

"Daniel? What's happening?"

"I don't know for sure. I took a hit in the head and was a little unconscious. I don't know how long. I can't find Jack or Shaboni."

"Stay there. I'll call the general and we'll have someone out there as quickly as possible."

"Okay," he said and hung up. He had only been halfway paying attention to the conversation. If he had thought about it he would have realized that she had told him to stay put and he had said he would. As it was, he was moving into the woods in the direction he'd seen Shaboni running. He had no idea where he was going, but he was betting if Jack had seen Shaboni running he would have taken off after her. The big question was who had hit him and where was he now.

Daniel walked silently through the darkened woods in a zig-zag pattern for about several minutes, occasionally getting his bearings when lightning lashed the sky. The rain was coming down like it had been poured from a bucket right over his head. He was soaked to the bone and freezing, but not really feeling it with all fire of adrenalin fueling him. There was no sign of either Shaboni or Jack. He considered going back up to the house to see if he could find a flashlight, but he'd already come this far and didn't want to turn back yet. He continued on until he came suddenly to the end of the trail. The world dipped and swayed as a flash of lightning revealed that he was standing very close to the edge of a vast chasm. The drop-off was sudden and steep. If either of them had been running this direction in the dark it was entirely possible, Daniel realized, that they could have just run right off the edge of the world here. He tried to peer over the side in the hopes that he wouldn't see anyone. He was grateful that he did not. But the darkness was inky and there was little hope that he would be able to see that far anyway. Daniel finally decided to risk calling out, "Jack!" He waited and heard only the wind and rain in reply.

He finally turned and started back toward the house. He thought he could hear voices in the distance coming from the direction of the house. He skirted off to the side not knowing what he was hearing or who might be up there. The adrenalin in his body was subsiding and being replaced by a cold that hurt and tired that demanded stillness. Still holding the bat he put the end down on the ground and leaned on it with both hands. The rain had slicked his skin and his glasses slipped all the way to the end of his nose. He pushed them back up again.

Daniel picked up the bat and started making a wide circle to approach the house from a different angle when a sudden flash of lightning illuminated a prone figure about twenty yards from him to his far left.

"JACK!" Daniel ran to him. He has laying face down in the dirt. Daniel reached down and touched his neck feeling for a pulse. He let out a huge breath when he found it there beating strong and regular. "Jack! Can you hear me?" Daniel couldn't see anything in the darkness. He squinted and brought his face as close to Jack's body as he could trying to see if there were any visible injuries. He just couldn't see anything. Now he really wanted that flashlight.

He could hear a voice heading for the woods. A woman. "DANIEL?" she called.

"SAM! DOWN HERE!"

He saw a bobbing beam of light coming down a trail towards him. "Over here!" She shined her flashlight on him and hurried over.

"What happened?" She started examining the Colonel.

"I'm not sure. Jack said Shaboni was acting weird. She went into the bathroom and he wanted me to go to around to the outside window. As I came around the house someone hit me in the head. When I came to I started looking for them and I just now found Jack. I have no idea where Shaboni is." He ran his hands through his dripping hair.

Jack came to with a suddenness that startled them both. He went from limply unconscious to squatting with his feet underneath him in a motion so quick and fluid it knocked Sam backwards onto her rump. She made a splatting sound as she hit the wet ground.

"Jack!" Daniel exclaimed.

"He shot her," were the first words out of his mouth. He swayed a little on his feet and Daniel reached out an arm to steady him.

"Sir," Carter said getting to her feet and feebly trying to dust off her dirty and very wet backside, "lets go back to the house and get you checked out."

"I'm fine, Carter," he said testily. "I'm betting it was Mayborne's men who showed up and now they've got her."

Carter demonstratively took hold of her CO and pulled him to his feet. Then she held out another hand for Daniel who grabbed the bat and climbed to his feet. The colonel started to walk toward the house in a distinctly diagonal fashion, like a puppy whose backend got a little ahead of its front end. Daniel and Sam caught him quickly and quietly started leading him in a more direct route back to the house.

Once they got there Jack sank onto the couch shivering. Daniel went into the bathroom and retrieved a towel. He returned to the living room and handed it to Jack. Just then the general and two armed airmen appeared in the room.

"The perimeter is secure, Sir," one reported to the General.

"Very good. I want you to go back outside and make sure that it stays that way." He turned to Jack, "What happened?"

"Shaboni started to take off, but before she got very far a couple of goons attacked us. I'm fairly certain one of them shot her and I know that he took her." Jack said tiredly, rubbing his hair gingerly with the towel. Sam reappeared from re-checking all the rooms in the house and wrapped a blanket around the colonel's shoulders. "Thanks."

"Colonel, I was able to learn some new information this afternoon that I had not had the chance to share with the rest of SG1. Sit down." General Hammond indicated for Sam and Daniel to join Jack.

"I did some checking and found out that the man this woman met with in Prague was a chemical and biological weapons engineer. His name is Dr. Tolla Ben Jahadi. He was killed in his lab three weeks ago. The CIA was investigating him for allegedly penetrating a US intelligence network in Germany when they discovered that NID agents were following him, as well. Apparently he had gone to dinner with a female companion and was followed by two unknown agents interested in the weapon he was developing at the time of his death. The official CIA report of the incident states that they suspected the two men who broke into the lab were after the new weapon. They apparently shot Ben Jahadi and then intentionally exposed the woman to the agents that were being used in the new weapon. The lab was destroyed in an explosion, but we do not know who is responsible for that. The woman in the report was noted briefly at a Prague hospital suffering from what appeared to be some kind of poisoning. But before she could be adequately treated she checked herself out and disappeared." The general stopped for a moment to give them a moment to digest what he was telling them.

"Are you saying that Shaboni was exposed to some kind of chemical weapon?" Daniel asked.

"That is exactly what I'm saying, Dr. Jackson. The Pentagon is deeply troubled at her presence here, and there are some who consider her to be an unacceptable security risk."

Jack looked up at that point, distinctly perturbed. "Oh, please! It wasn't the SGC that recruited a bunch of international chemists. We didn't blow up a lab in Prague! The only thing we did was stumble across a woman trying to get to the bottom of her husband's disappearance in just enough time to keep her from finding out exactly what happened to him!"

"I agree, colonel, and I can assure you that the Joint Chiefs are going to understand it in just that light. But I can't ignore the fact that she is here and was extremely close to figuring out the existence of the Stargate program."

"You mean _was_ here," Jack corrected him.

"Yes, and now we have to find her," the general informed them.

Daniel looked utterly perplexed. "I don't understand. Why does the SGC want to find her now?"

"Because the man who was killed in that lab had actually been working _for_ the NID. They were behind the recruitment of foreign nationals posing as SGC, which exposed the Stargate program to an unknown number of scientists, not to mention how they made us look the last time they posed as us. And they were apparently developing a slow-acting chemical weapon meant for God only knows what. They were willing to kill the man they hired to create the thing."

"When are they not willing to kill for something they want?" Sam intoned.

Ignoring her, the general continued, "The weapon Ben Jahadi was working on was apparently utilizing two compounds that can not be found on Earth. One of which, we believe is Naquada. The other is something we had encountered before, on another mission and that was being investigated at Area 51. It is another heavy metal that has been tagged Sub Element 201 Beta. Apparently when combined and introduced into a living creature these two elements have a poisoning effect that is slow and extremely difficult to diagnose. The prototype weapon was destroyed and Captain Uziel is believed to have been exposed to it. I was unable to find out all of the specifics, but her records from Mercy hospital revealed that they believe she is suffering from Beryllium and Dimethyl-mercury poisoning. There were substances in her blood that they could not identify and were in the process of treating her when she checked herself out of the hospital against medical advice."

"Oh God," Sam's eyes went large as saucers and her voice took on a strangled quality. Daniel and Jack both looked at her. She addressed the colonel, "Sir, both of those substances are extremely toxic." She was thinking aloud, "The NID agents supposedly exposed her to the weapon intentionally when they just could have killed her along with Dr. Ben Jahadi. There must be something they were looking for that they could not get from his research." She paused to consider this possibility, "They must have been wanting to study the effects of the weapon. I mean, we know what Beryllium and Mercury do to the human body. It is possible that those were also somehow a part of this weapon, but there would be no reason to study their effects."

She paused and then added, "The NID want to study her death. That's why they came after her here. We started asking questions about her husband, they found out about the accident and then they knew where she was. No wonder she didn't want to stay at the hospital. She knew they'd find her there."

Jack felt his throat tighten. He simply hadn't realized the danger she was in. She'd mentioned something about being 'found', and she definitely didn't want to return to the hospital. All the clues he could have needed were there, but he hadn't seen them.

"I believe so, Major," General Hammond responded.

"What do you mean, 'study her death'?" Jack demanded.

"Sir, with the weapon that Dr. Ben Jahadi was working on destroyed, the NID wants the next best thing. That would be to study Shaboni's reaction to the heavy metals she's been exposed to. If she were poisoned with Naquada and this SE201b they would need to know its effects and how it actually kills someone. They could then extrapolate the best delivery system." She had that look on her face that said she was deep in thought. "Because at least one of the substances she's been exposed to is a heavy metal. It would be exceedingly difficult to aerosolize in an undetectable manner. If Dr. Ben Jahadi managed to find a way to accomplish this he would have a very lethal chemical weapon that works slowly enough that its use could only be detected long after the fact."

"If she was exposed three weeks ago, how much time does she have before it kills her?" Daniel asked.

"It depends, Daniel. We don't know if there really was mercury or beryllium in her blood. And we have no experience with Naquada poisoning, much less this SE201b. We don't know how much of any of it she was exposed to, and we don't know if she inhaled it or ingested it. I do know that Dimethyl-mercury is readily absorbed by the skin and through the mucous membranes. A chemist from Dartmouth spilled a few drops on the latex glove on her hand and slipped into a coma 6 months later. She died 10 months later. So it wouldn't take much of that. The Beryllium is more difficult to quantify. If inhaled, it can cause severe respiratory disease. It also can cause erosive damage to the lining of the lungs and gastrointestinal tract."

Daniel winced as the image of Shaboni vomiting blood flashed in his mind.

"So this is a weapon to be used when you want to kill someone, but don't want them to know they've been killed until they're so sick they would be dead soon," Jack commented.

"The practical uses for such a chemical weapon are very limited. But I can think of a few ways it could come in handy," Sam explained darkly.

"So the NID wanted some new kind of chemical weapon. They posed as the SGC and hired foreign chemists to work on it, presumably so that their actions would not come under scrutiny by Congressional oversight. They could try to claim that we had done it. Once they got their weapon built they went to retrieve it, but then they discovered that Shaboni knew of the program and decided to eliminate the security risk by killing their weapons designer and her. But just for kicks they exposed her to the weapon so that they wouldn't lose all the research." Daniel's tone expressed the frustration they were all starting to feeling.

"Sir, we have to find her. It is our fault that the NID knew where to look for her. We might not be able to fix anything in the long run, but we don't have to hang her out to dry. I'll be damned if she's going to spend her last days living like a lab rat in a cage," Jack demanded angrily.

"We are going to do just that, Colonel. But first, I want you to come back to the base and get checked out by Dr. Fraiser. I have sent word to Chulak for Teal'c to return and we expect him sometime in the next three hours. If Dr. Fraiser clears you for duty, you will lead SG1 on a rescue operation as soon as we have a location."

"How are we going to find out her location?" Daniel asked.

"Colonel Mayborne is going to tell us," the general said with a look that spoke of his confidence in their collective powers of persuasion. The fire in his eyes was unmistakable. "And if he doesn't know, he's going to find out. Let's go people."

They all stood up and headed for the door then jumped into their cars and the transport parked outside next to Daniel's car and headed for the base. Jack wished he'd had time to get some dry clothes and shoes, but he figured he could grab some from his locker. On the ride over, he was completely still and silent. They had all seen the look before. It was a cold and deadly stillness. A lack of movement and sound that said someone is going to die.

Jack was not thinking. His head was hurting, but he was roundly ignoring it. He was freezing, but that too did not matter. He wanted his gun. He needed his gun. He was imagining the sound of metal against metal as the clip slid into place, the weight of it in his hands, the smell of it after he fired it, and the smell of it after he cleaned it. He was not thinking because thinking would mean that he would be realizing that Shaboni was dying. And that right now she was dying in a place where men who were less than human were most likely conducting experiments on her as she suffered so that they could gauge the usefulness of some new way to kill someone. No, he was not thinking about that. He would not think about that. He would not think about how he'd known there would be a terrible price to pay exacted for a moment of pure joy. He would not think at all. He would just act. And his first action would be to take then men responsible for this malevolence in his hands and show them the degree of their error. He would show them in no uncertain terms.

They arrived at the base to find that Teal'c had already returned and was waiting for them. In the language of warriors, Teal'c and O'Neill exchanged silent acknowledgement of each other. Jack excused himself to the infirmary and waited for the good doctor to finish her examination of him so that he could go get cleaned up.

After she did as thorough an examination as she dared she declared him fit for duty. "You still have a nasty concussion from the accident, and the blow you received tonight didn't do you any favors, but it is mild by comparison. Your hand isn't broken, but it will probably be stiff."

He acted as though she was not talking to him, just sitting there quietly waiting for her to be finished.

"Tell Daniel to come in here. I want to have a look at him too." She dismissed the colonel, who walked away without a word. Janet felt a chill move up her spine. She knew the man was capable of things she would never have wanted to contemplate in the dark, but she'd never seen him in that particular mode herself. It was a frightening thing to behold. His dark eyes were like black ice that would burn you if you looked too long.

Daniel came in and she took a look at his head. He had a gash where he'd been struck, and the bruise surrounding it swelled pushing the edges of the cut apart. "Daniel you could use some stitches here," she pointed out. "How long were you unconscious?"

"I really don't know. I don't think it was more than a few minutes. Please no stitches." He winced and pulled away from her dabbing of antiseptic on the open wound. He'd not noticed that his shirt was wet with blood because it had been wet from the rain. "Ouch!"

"Sit still," she insisted.

"Janet," he said trying his best to be cooperative, "is Jack really okay?"

"Well, physically speaking he is fair, not great." She paused and debated whether to continue.

"Mentally?" Daniel pushed.

"Well, let's just say I wouldn't want to be the one he's angry with," she finished up. "Okay, I'm going to give you an antibiotic shot and I want you to come back tomorrow for another one. Let me put some Dermabond in the cut. I will be done in three minutes, and then you can go." Then they were done. Daniel went to the gear room and quickly dressed in some clean fatigues. Then he went to his office to wait for news.

The colonel went back to the general's office to find out if Mayborne had been located yet. As he approached he found the general was on the phone. General Hammond saw him approaching and motioned for him to come in.

"Thank you for your help," he said as Jack entered the room and then he hung up. "We found him."

"Well?" Jack said coolly.

"He is at Peterson. For some reason he's already in town," the general said dubiously.

"Permission to go to Peterson and kill Harry Mayborne, Sir," Jack said with a steel voice.

"Permission denied, Colonel. You will go to Peterson and question him and then you will report back here. If you are unable to get any information from him you are authorized to negotiate for the information you require. You will not, under any circumstances, lay a finger on him. Am I clear, Colonel?"

"And what am I supposed to use to negotiate, General?" Jack asked bitterly.

"Improvise, Jack. Just don't give away the store," General Hammond said softly.

"I am taking Teal'c," he informed his CO.

"Very well. Now, go. Before it gets any later."

With that, Jack went to Teal'c's quarters and suggested he grab a hat. They were going to Peterson Air Force Base.

*****

Teal'c noticed the mood that had settled over his friend. "Why are you troubled, O'Neill?"

"I'm not troubled."

"I believe you are."

"What you're seeing isn't troubled. It's pissed." Jack pulled at the strap on his watch.

"Something transpired while I was away on Chulak?" he questioned.

"You could say that."

Teal'c stared at Jack levelly. He waited for O'Neill to elaborate. Jack looked up at him and realized he was going to have to say a little more.

"Something definitely happened. And this woman, Shaboni, she was what made it happen." He did not want to say any more than that and was relieved when Teal'c recognized all he needed in those few words.

"We shall find her, O'Neill," Teal'c assured him.

"Maybe we will. But it's not going to matter. She's dying, Teal'c." And with that Jack slapped the strap on his wrist and turned away.

Teal'c had not realized the full extent of the connection that had been made between the woman they sought to rescue and his friend. He could see now that something more than a friendship had been forged between the two.

The car that was ferrying them to Peterson stopped at the gate and they presented their credentials. They were waved through, and the driver took them to a hangar on the far end of the base. Teal'c pulled his hat down over the golden tattoo on his forehead and pulled the collar of his jacket up to block the cold wind. The main lights of the base were far enough away from this particular building that everything was darker and the shadows were longer. _'An appropriate meeting place for this particular Tau'ri,'_ Teal'c thought.

The driver waited in the car, and the two men went inside the hangar. There was an HH60-G Pave Hawk helicopter parked near the opposite doors. Other than that the hangar appeared empty. Jack and Teal'c began making their way around the side of the building to where the apparently abandoned helicopter sat. Just as they were about to reach the bird a voice came from behind them.

"Hello, gentlemen. I understand you've been looking for me." Colonel Harry Mayborne stepped out of the shadows behind them. He was a short man with thin brown hair and a face like a weasel. Teal'c and Jack turned around. Jack did not return his overture of civilized greeting.

"I want to know where Captain Shaboni Uziel is being held," Jack said, his voice dangerously low.

"Why, Jack, I don't know who you're talking about." Mayborne grinned a nasty little grin.

"Harry, I don't have time to play your little games right now. Just tell me where she is and I won't hurt you."

"You won't do anything to me, Jack. I happen to know you're under orders not to lay a finger on me," the little man said haughtily.

Jack pulled out his Beretta and pulled the slide back to chamber a round. He pointed it at the little man and said, "I'm not going to lay a finger on you, Harry. I'm going to pump hot little bolts of lead into you. Tell me where Captain Uziel is. Now," His voice was deadly steady.

"I don't know where she is at the moment, Jack. Some of our more militant members have managed to get their hands on her. If you want to find her you're going to need my help."

"I'm about to get your help. As much help as I want from you. If you don't know where she is in less than ten minutes you're going to become intimately acquainted with those little bolts of lead I was mentioning a moment ago. Now where do we need to go for you to obtain this information that is going to take you less than ten minutes to obtain?"

Mayborne considered his options for a moment. Jack knew full well that Mayborne couldn't do anything to him because of his position within the SGC. He enjoyed a certain degree of latitude. And most men who knew him deeply respected him as a leader because he rarely ever took advantage of that latitude. He treated those under him with respect and commanded that in return. But right now his actions went far outside the purview of that sweet little degree of latitude he enjoyed. He knew that if he shot Mayborne there'd be hell to pay, but right now he didn't care.

That made it much more than an idle threat and Mayborne knew it. He'd seen Jack's personnel file. The complete file. He knew that the man was capable of emptying his clip into Mayborne's gut, come what may. But if he let on that he knew that there would be no holding back the tide of this Colonel's ire in the future. And, oh, what a future he had planned! There was going to come a day when he would need this man, for one reason or another, and this was not a battle worth winning at the expense of his long-range goals.

Mayborne reached into his pocket. Jack's eyes sharpened and he held the gun up a little higher, "Ah, ah, ah. Two fingers," he said waving the M9 in the direction of Mayborne's pocket. Colonel Mayborne held up his hands to indicate he was not intending to threaten and reached with two fingers for his cell phone.

"You'll excuse me while I make a quick call," he quipped.

"You'll stay right the hell where you are or," and he wiggled the gun indicating his intentions to fire.

Mayborne acquiesced and dialed a number on his phone. He held it to his face and Teal'c could make out the sound of the line connecting. He could not hear the words being spoken on the other end, but Mayborne had, indeed, made a connecting call.

"This is Mayborne. I need to know what you've done with the Mossad woman." He didn't take his eyes of Jack. There was a moment of silence and then Mayborne added, "Because I'm ordering you to tell me where she's been taken." And again he waited a moment. Mayborne shifted his gaze from Jack's eyes to Teal'c's and then back again. The he said, "Thank you," and he hung up.

"Well?" Jack demanded impatiently.

"She has been taken to a warehouse in the Security-Widefield area. It is at Little Johnson Reservoir off Bradley Rd. There is an empty cul-de-sac one block before the building where they have her and development on the next lot."

Jack turned to Teal'c, "That is less than five minutes from here." Jack tucked his gun away, turned, and started toward the door of the hangar.

"You're most welcome, Colonel O'Neill," Mayborne called to them as they were leaving. Jack simply didn't care enough to turn around.

They got back to the car and the driver was gone. Jack got out of the car and whistled loudly, hoping to get his attention in the event that he'd walked off to use the latrine. No one came. He started to get frustrated. "We're practically around the freakin' corner!"

"O'Neill, would not Daniel Jackson and Major Carter wish to be with us? We must return to Cheyenne Mountain and inform General Hammond before attempting a rescue."

Jack didn't say anything right away. He noticed that the keys to the car were still in the ignition. He didn't want to wait another minute. He had no idea what was happening at that warehouse, but he was sure it bad. And he was sure that he didn't want her to have to suffer one more minute. So if he was going to have to go all the way back to the base before returning to get her, he was not going to wait one more second to leave. He jumped in the front seat and started the ignition.

Jack drove towards the Peterson Air Force Base front gate with all the reserve he had within him. He did not speed. He did not call attention to them. He had not waited for their driver, but he outranked the man anyway. At the gate he was waved on through. Teal'c sat stoically in the front passenger's seat, unmoving, and unwavering in his unquestioning support of the colonel. As soon as Jack was out of sight of the guard at the front gate he pressed the accelerator to the floor of the Chevy and raced for the mountain.


	8. Chapter 8

*****

"Do we know which building it is for certain?" General Hammond asked Jack as he sat there fidgeting.

"No. Mayborne said that it was on the road just past the empty cul-de-sac. There is supposed to be a warehouse there at Little Johnson Reservoir. It's off Bradley Road, and if I might add, Sir, I was closer to Bradley Road before I drove all the way back here," he added testily.

"You did the right thing, Colonel." The general turned to the rest of SG1 who were standing behind the colonel, "I'm sending SGs 9 and 7 with you. Use them as you see fit, Colonel, but you're not going without backup. We have no idea what Colonel Mayborne did after you left there, and there is no telling what kind of a mess you may be walking into. Dr. Fraiser is going with a small medical unit. They will wait at the extraction site for your arrival. If Captain Uziel is conscious at the time of the recovery, she will be sedated and brought back to the SGC. It is my understanding that her time may be very short. Be suited up and ready to go in ten. Dismissed!" They all turned and filed out of the room.

The three teams suited up and climbed into the back of a large transport truck. Janet and a group of medics carried medical gear to a medical transport and climbed in the back of that. They were about to roll out when General Hammond stepped behind the trucks and called to them, "Bring her back, SG1. God's speed."

"That's better," Jack mumbled.

Everyone was quiet for the ride over. Jack pulled his black knit cap down low to keep his ears warm. Teal'c sat unmoving, and Sam did a last check of her gear. Daniel appeared to be staring straight ahead, but in truth he was watching Jack out of the corner of his eye. Jack was still. He barely blinked. Daniel always felt distinctly nervous before a military operation such as this. But Jack didn't seem nervous. It seemed like such events evened him out. Daniel had come to believe that, on a level the gray-haired colonel would never acknowledge at a time such as this, he was driven by more than training.

They rolled into the industrial complex that was situated near the reservoir. When they turned onto Bradley Road the truck made a quick stop at the empty cul-de-sac before turning back. The three teams disembarked in the parking lot behind a refinery. There was only one warehouse in the immediate vicinity of the complex on the reservoir, which made their hunting a little easier. There were trees between the refinery and the reservoir, but the warehouse had no natural cover for approach. There was going to be no sneaking up on the building. If someone was watching they'd probably already been seen.

Once the three team leaders had a feel for the layout of the area, they came together and squatted at a white board kept in the rear of the truck for drawing out their plan of attack. Colonel O'Neill instructed the other leaders and their teams: SG1 would enter the building on the North side facing the reservoir. SG9 would take up positions outside the building at the four exits on the North, East, and West sides of the building and SG7 would hang back at the tree line and wait in case either SG's 1 or 9 got in trouble. Janet and her team were told to drive to the cul-de-sac and pull off behind a small grove of trees. The rest of the lots on the site were being developed and the trees were gone. But in direct line of sight of the warehouse, there was a small grove of trees left standing on one lot. If the ground was too soft they would have to stay on the paved circle, but if it was dry or sufficiently covered, they would drive up onto the ground and wait for the recovery team to arrive. They were to maintain radio silence after SG1 entered the building, unless someone was in trouble. If someone needed to report they would signal by clicking the talk button three times rapidly. They inserted their earpieces, clamped on their NV goggles, did a last minute count of extra magazines, and Colonel O'Neill issued them "Go."

The medical transport pulled out, and, once it was in position, Jack called for SG's 1 and 9 to move in on the building. They circled the building at the tree line that ran closest to the fence that enclosed the parking lot. Once they got to the shortest section of fence SG9's CO, Major Selart, pulled a cutting tool from his vest and snipped the chain links in a straight line to the ground. He then held it apart while the remainder of his team entered the premises and advanced on the building. Colonel O'Neill grabbed the cut fence from Major Selart and held it open for him and then SG1. He was the last to enter. By the time SG1 had gotten through the fence, SG9 had spread out and were covering all the exits. SG1 went to the North side of the building and eased towards the door. O'Neill depressed and released the talk button on his radio to signal for radio silence.

SG1 removed their NV goggles. Sam pulled a lock pick kit from her vest and set to work on the lock. Daniel readied a thermite incendiary strip in case she couldn't get the lock opened. She breached the door in just under thirty seconds, and the four of them cleared the entry. Jack signaled for Sam and Teal'c to take the east hallway and he and Daniel would take the one to the West. Daniel raised his Zat' higher as he followed Jack around the corner into the darkened hallway. He could hear the blood rushing in his ears as he strained to hear voices or movement from behind the doors while they moved up the hallway. Jack held his Zat' in his right hand and reached out with his left to open the first door.

As the door swung open Jack moved in, down and right and Daniel moved in up and left, clearing the room. There was no one. They moved down the hallway in this fashion, one room at a time, not finding anyone. Sam and Teal'c were having the same experience on the other side of the building until coming to a room that they found locked. Upon examination Sam could see that a normal dead bolt was holding the door, and dim flickering light was filtering from beneath the crack at the bottom. She motioned to Teal'c to follow her into a room they'd already cleared. Once in there, she closed the door and depressed the talk button on her radio three times in rapid succession and waited.

Daniel and Jack were in the hallway when their radios signaled that someone needed to report. They stepped back into the room they'd been in just before and closed the door. Jack spoke in hushed tones into his radio, "Go ahead."

"Sir," Sam whispered, "We've found a locked room. There is some light coming from under the door. Breaching it will alert everyone to our presence. Over."

"Understood, Carter. Standby." Jack stood still for a moment considering what he should do. Then he said, "What is your position?"

"We're fourth room down on the right in the hallway opposite you."

"Oay, hold there. Daniel and I are going to finish clearing this side, and then we'll join you."

"Copy that, Sir."

Daniel and Jack moved back out into the hallway and started back down to the next unopened room. They made quick work of clearing the remaining rooms and started back towards the door where they'd entered. As they rounded the corner Jack heard something and held up his hand. Daniel stopped and they pushed themselves flat against a door. Footsteps started echoing down the hallway they were heading for. Daniel held his breath. The footsteps were getting louder. Someone was definitely coming. Only one set. Daniel waited. They stopped. There was the sound of a door opening, then closing. Then the footsteps were approaching again. A solid-looking man about six feet tall, and wearing a dark blue suit, came around the corner.

Before it fully registered in the man's head what he was seeing, Jack had fired his Zat' at the man and he dropped to the ground. Quickly and quietly they grabbed the guy and started with him down the hallway. They counted four doors and went inside, closing the door behind them. They dragged the man behind a desk, and Jack quickly undid his tie and belt, using them to gag and bind the man. Without a word Jack indicated that they would try a thermite strip for breaching the door. It took about three full seconds to melt through an average dead bolt, but it was significantly quieter than a gun or a breaching charge. They had a better chance of not being detected with the thermite strip.

He took the strip from Daniel and signaled for them to follow him. He indicated with a question in his eyes, 'Is this the door?' Sam nodded her head. Teal'c crossed the hall and took up a position that would cover them as they entered the room. Jack placed the strip and everyone looked away from the flash of white-hot light in the dark. The moment it stopped its burn Jack stood up and kicked the door as hard as he could. It sprang open with a moderately loud BANG. The guy at the monitoring station was standing with his mouth open, reaching for a gun he'd stowed more than arm's reach away. Daniel fired his Zat' and the guy fell with a heavy thud onto the desk then slid onto the floor. SG1 hurried into the room and Teal'c closed the door quietly.

Jack and Sam ran around the desk and started examining the different monitors. This was a security control room. There were security cameras all over the building, including the entryway they'd entered. How they managed to not be noticed was a pressing question. If in fact they had not been noticed. There was no indication that anyone on the premises was aware of their presence, but knowing that the probability was high, they could not ignore the increased risk of their situation. Jack thought the situation felt very wrong.

Jack pointed to Daniel and ordered quietly, "Secure our security guard, here."

Daniel moved around behind the desk and pulled the unconscious guard out of the way. He reached into his vest and pulled out a couple of plastic zip ties and secured the guy's hands and ankles. Jack and Sam were inspecting the various monitors, searching for any sign of where they might be holding Shaboni. They saw nothing that looked like her, but there was a largish room that was clearly not entirely seen by the camera.

"Carter, can you tell where this room is?" Jack indicated the monitor he was looking at.

"No, Sir. The cameras being displayed here rotate every fifteen seconds. They do not display the room they're in."

"See if you can figure out how to get them to stop rotating automatically. I'm going to see if there is a printout of the layout of this building in here." Jack turned and started searching the desk for anything that would give him a better idea of where to look. If they had to go through every room they would, but first they'd see if they could figure out something more specific.

Daniel finished securing the guard and joined Jack in his search for more intel on the building. There was a filing cabinet in the corner and Daniel started in there.

After a few minutes Carter said, "Got it, Sir. I have the cameras set to hold and can switch them from one view to the other with these buttons here." She pointed to a series of buttons beneath the monitor console.

"Jack!" Daniel called. The colonel turned around as Daniel produced a three-ring binder with one hand that contained what appeared to be emergency procedures for the building. He was shining a flashlight on the book with another. "I think they store hazardous chemicals here or something because they have this with a complete set of procedures for spills and stuff like that." He flipped the binder open and started turning pages. He came to the part he wanted to show Jack and wiggled his flashlight to indicate he'd found it. "These appear to be their evacuation plans for each sector of the building."

"Good work, Daniel," Jack commended, taking the book from him. He set it down on the desk, and Daniel handed him his flashlight. Jack studied it for a few minutes and compared what he was seeing on the pages with what he had surmised of the building from the security cameras. He reached forward and pushed a few of the buttons on the monitor console to set the images in a different configuration. He looked back to the book and turned a page back and forth a few times. "Okay," he motioned for Daniel and Teal'c to come closer.

"I don't know where they have her, if she's even here. But there are clearly two rooms that are not coming up on the cameras and at least half of this warehouse area there isn't visible," he pointed to the monitor. "Teal'c, you're with me. Daniel, you stay here with Carter." He turned to her, "I need you to follow us on the cameras." He stopped and reached into his vest, pulling out a grease pencil. He marked a line on the paper on one page, turned the page and drew a path from the top through a couple of rooms and out a door. "Get us to this room, and then, if she's there, when we have her you need to help us reach this door here." He dropped the pencil on the spot where he intended to leave the building. "I haven't seen any other personnel on the videos, but I seriously doubt they're all gone. Once we have her and are out the door, you two are going to head to the extraction point the way we came in."

Everyone nodded their understanding of the plan. Jack and Teal'c went to the door. Before they could open the door Daniel called to him, "Jack," he said earnestly, "Watch your back."

"You bet." Jack opened the door, and he and Teal'c disappeared into the hallway.

They headed down the corridor and came to the end where the office space opened up into a large warehouse space. They eased into the space that was lined all the way around with palettes filled with myriad moving supplies. The central portion of the room had two rows of metal shelves that went all the way to the ceiling and were filled with mostly unmarked crates. Jack and Teal'c made their way around the perimeter of the concrete room stepping lightly, hunched behind the palettes filled with moving blankets and unwrapped hand trucks stacked higher than Teal'c's head. They got to the end of the long room and stopped at a heavy door. Jack clicked the talk button on his radio requesting a report from Sam.

"Sir, the hallway on the other side of the door is clear. Over," she spoke lowly into her radio.

He looked to Teal'c to make sure that he was ready, and they pushed the door open. They moved into the hallway and held the door so that it would close as quietly as possible behind them.

"You need to take the first hallway on the right," she informed them.

They headed down the corridor and noticed that the floor had a slight downward grade to it. The walls were concrete and aluminum instead of the covered sheetrock they'd seen in the front half of the building. This part of the building had a distinctly military feel to it, by comparison. They came to the first right and turned. They still didn't see any sign of life.

"Now you need to take the second left."

They passed the first left quickly, started to turn left at the second spot, and abruptly came upon a door. It was chained closed. Jack peered into the small glass window and saw what appeared to be a small utility room. It was pretty dark and Jack couldn't see all the way to the other side of the room. "Uh, Carter, little problem here."

"There's no camera past the door, Sir. That is the point where we turn the page." He could hear her flipping back and forth as she talked to see if there was something she was missing.

Jack decided to force the door. "Any sign of life anywhere in this building?" he whispered.

"No, Sir. That's the second page, Sir. It's obviously where the cameras stop."

"Copy that, Major." Jack did a quick appraisal of the chain and lock. It was not a standard keyed padlock. He fished in his vest and pulled out a thermite strip and attached it to the exposed links of the chain. He lit it and they both turned their heads away to avoid being blinded by the white-hot flash of its burn. The chain fell and hung open. Jack unwound it from the door handles and set it quietly on the floor.

They entered the small storage room. There was no obvious light switch, so Jack took out his flashlight and started trying to figure out how this room continued to the remaining parts of the building. There was only one other door, and it was also locked. This was getting annoying. This lock appeared to be keyed. He pulled his lock pick kit out of his vest again and squatted down to get close enough to get a feel for lining up the tumblers. He got the lock open and flung the door wide. It led to an elevator, and it only went down.

"Carter, we've found an elevator. Do you have plans for the lower floors?"

"No, Sir."

"We're going to check it out. If she's here, I bet she's down there. Keep an eye on the camera in the hall outside this room. We'll come back out this way. O'Neill, out."

"We copy, Sir."

Jack and Teal'c boarded the elevator. There was only one other floor that they could access so they pressed that button. The elevator descended intolerably slowly, and the two soldiers stood ready to destroy anything that might be standing in their way when the doors slid open. What they found when the doors opened not only surprised them both, but severely tempted the colonel to go with his initial plan to destroy anything that stood in their way when the doors parted.

"Good of you to make it, Jack. Now hurry, we don't have much time." Harry Mayborne was standing there with a less-than-thrilled expression on his face.

"Harry, what the hell are you doing here?" Jack demanded as they followed him down the dimly lit corridor. Every few feet they would pass an open room. Several of those rooms had unconscious men lying in them.

"I told you that you would need my help if you want to get the Mossad woman." He was walking to the end at a very fast clip, leading Teal'c and Jack to a room with a solid metal door.

As they walked briskly down the corridor, they noticed several men lying unconscious in a heap with their arms and legs bound towards the end. Mayborne offered a short explanation, "They were expecting you, but not me. You've been followed from the moment they took her from your house. I knew that if you wanted to get her back, I would have to get here and secure the location."

"Why the hell didn't you just tell me that, Mayborne?" Jack asked, irritated.

"Because you didn't give me the opportunity. Besides, I found it utterly satisfying to see the look on your face when that elevator door opened." They got to the end of the hallway, and Mayborne used a card to open the door.

The light in the room was dim, but Jack could see a figure lying on a table next to a desk littered with surgical instruments and other medical equipment. There was no IV or rescue equipment to be seen. They'd brought her here to experiment on her, but not to prolong her life in any way. His jaw clenched in fury.

He ran to the table and noted that she was handcuffed at the arms and legs. Jack shined his light on her and illuminated her deathly pale face. There was a streak of blood lining her face that streamed from her mouth and was pooling in her dark hair. He touched her and her skin was cold and clammy. She had been stripped to her underwear, and Jack could find nothing with which to cover her. He put his fingers to her neck to feel for a pulse and found it weak and thready. He bent his face close to hers to feel for breath, and that was when he heard the strangled drowning sound she was making. There was so little breath coming from her he wasn't sure he'd felt any at all.

"Shaboni?" He touched her face and tried wiping some of the blood from her mouth with the cuff of his sleeve. "Can you hear me?"

Mayborne actually made himself useful. He took his uniform jacket off and laid it across her torso, then set to work trying to unlock the cuffs at her ankles with one of the surgical instruments. Jack shined his flashlight for him and saw that the skin around her ankles was severely discolored. He looked to her wrists and found that they were worse than bruised. They were bloody. Her left hand was swollen in a way that indicated her thumb was fractured or dislocated. She had been trying to free herself but apparently hadn't succeeded before the swelling had set in. He saw no signs that she'd been shot, however, and concluded that what he'd seen in the woods must have been a tranquilizer gun, even though he didn't believe they tended to use gun powder in those dope darts. There was nothing to explain the flash of a muzzle. Then he saw the twin burn marks at her neck. It had been a stun gun that had incapacitated her.

Jack took his lock-pick kit out once more and set to work on her other wrist. She moaned a little when he pulled at the injured hand. "Shaboni, its Jack. Can you hear me?" Her eyes fluttered and opened. They were clouded with pain.

She tried to speak but Jack put a hand to her pale lips and said, "Shhhh. We're getting you out of here." She tried to take a deep enough breath to speak and the sound was unnerving. Mayborne looked up at the wet rattle she made when she breathed. His face was stony, but there was a darkness to his eyes that Jack had never seen before. He was truly disturbed by her condition. _'Didn't know you had it in you, Harry.'_

Shaboni kept trying to talk, and things started spilling out in disjointed jumbles. "Antidote...said that they would make antidote....wanted Tolla...lab notes....knew you would be coming....waited for you, Jack....did not tell them....prayed for you would be finding me....so sorry." It was coming in barely audible whispers. A sound like a cross between a sob and a cough came from her throat and fresh blood spattered Jack's face.

"Damnit, Shaboni. Just hang on." They had all but the wrist Mayborne was working on unlocked when the door burst open and gunfire forced all three of them to the floor.

Jack lunged sideways shooting his Zat' at the two men taking cover behind the doorframe. Teal'c swung around and made for the far wall that was closest to his position. From the side he would be in a better position to fire upon the two men where the wall could afford no more protection. Mayborne actually shot under the gurney and fired a few rounds from his handgun, then turned on his back and went back to work on Shaboni's left wrist cuff. Jack and Teal'c kept firing.

Right at that moment Carter chose to request a report. "Sir, how's it going down there?"

Teal'c managed to hit the man who was on the left and he fell in a heap inside the doorway. He then began to track around to the other side of the room trying to angle himself so that he could more easily hit the remaining assailant. Jack reached down and yelled bitingly, "Little busy here, Carter," and went back to trying to shoot the remaining assailant.

Up in the security office Carter and Daniel looked at each other with alarm when they heard the sound of gunfire coming over the radio. There was absolutely nothing they could do but wait for a report or further orders and hope that they didn't need backup.

Finally, Mayborne got Shaboni's wrist free. He rose up high enough to get a good grip on her and pulled her off the gurney and out of the line of fire as best he could. She landed heavily on him smearing blood on his clothes and hands. He rolled her over, putting himself between her and the firefight.

"Jack, there are going to be a whole lot more people trying to come through that door in less than five minutes. Finish this guy off. We have got to GO!" he warned.

"What, and leave all this behind?" Colonel O'Neill groused, firing repeatedly.

Teal'c was finally able to shoot the other guy who fell away from the door. He went back to Mayborne's side to help him with Shaboni.

Jack radioed the others, informing them of the situation. "We're about to have more company. Teal'c and I are going out the way we came in. Carter, Daniel, and SG9 fall back. Get to the extraction point," he instructed.

He knew that Carter would be struggling with his orders to clear out before they had left the building, but that she was as solid a soldier as they come and would do what she was ordered. After the expected delay she said, "Roger that, Sir. Carter, out."

Jack made his way back to Shaboni's side and was about to instruct Teal'c to pick her up when a terrible drowning cough convulsed through her. Blood sprayed out of her mouth and covered Jack's shirt. Mayborne turned his head away. Her skin had taken on a grayish pallor, and her lips were tinged blue. Jack used the tail of the black t-shirt he wore beneath his BDUs to try to wipe some more of the blood from her mouth. She opened her mouth to speak again and whispered, "I was waiting...for..." she coughed once more and then went limp. Her eyes didn't close and Jack felt the terrible short gasping she'd been doing stop. _'No no no not this, not now!'_ A wave of fear crashed over him.

"O'Neill," Teal'c said with fierce intensity, "I believe she is no longer breathing."

Jack was already moving. He got into position near her head, pushing Mayborne out of his way. He tilted her head back and put his mouth to hers, pushing the air in his lungs into hers. There was no rise of her chest and the air came right back out her mouth. _'.crap.'_ Something was obstructing her airway. He had no way of knowing if it was in her throat, or if she was simply drowning in the blood that was filling her lungs, but he had to try something.

He looked around at the surgical instruments strewn across the desk and the floor. He found a short scalpel and grabbed it. He scattered the rest of the instruments searching for something to insert for a field airway. There was nothing tubular for him to use. He started feeling through his vest pockets for something. "HELL!" he spat as he came up empty. "Do you have a pen?" He demanded of Mayborne.

Colonel Mayborne reached into his pocket and pulled out a plastic pen. Thanking the stars, fates, and whatever God may really be out there watching them, Jack grabbed it and unscrewed the ends of it. He tossed the ink cartridge and spring aside. Then he bent over Shaboni. There was no time for sterility.

"Teal'c hold your flashlight on her throat." Teal'c did as he asked, and Jack positioned the scalpel above the base of her ever-so-still neck. He closed his eyes and breathed a quick prayer that simply asked, "Please," and he made an incision.

Jack cut all the way through the pale skin at the base of her throat to the fibrous cartilage rings of Shaboni's trachea with one stroke. With one finger he held the slit in her neck open, and with the other hand he inserted the scalpel to make an incision in the tissue between the rings of cartilage. Then he worked his finger into the cut he'd just made and slid the tube from the pen into her trachea. He grabbed a small adhesive bandage from his pocket, cut a slit in it, and slid it down over the tube fixing it in place the best he could.

With a makeshift tracheotomy in place, he bent down and blew air into her lungs. He was rewarded with the rise of her chest. When he sat up to take another breath, frothy blood began to bubble out the end of the tube. He leaned down and gave a great suck on the pen tube, filling his mouth with blood and fluid. Forcing aside the desperate urge to wretch, he spat it out on the floor and then forced more air into her lungs. He had to clear the airway two more times before he could breathe for her repeatedly, but as soon as he did that the blue that had spread around her mouth started to recede and turn a more healthy shade of pink. Her heartbeat was still frighteningly weak and thready, but it was still there.

"Jack we have to go, NOW," Mayborne urged him.

"I shall carry her," Teal'c assured him. He gathered the woman in his arms and stood up.

Jack walked alongside Teal'c, blowing air and life into Shaboni every few moments. As soon as they got back to the ground floor Jack radioed the others, "We have her. I need the medical unit ready to go as soon as we get out into the open." He stopped and breathed into the tube in her neck again.

When they got to the door on the north side of the building where they'd entered they could hear approaching vehicles, and a light from a helicopter above them was shining on the warehouse. Soon the place would be overrun. Jack gave Shaboni one more breath, and then he and Teal'c took off for the medical transport. He noticed that Mayborne didn't follow them past the door, but he didn't have the time to argue about it. He turned around and looked behind him as he ran and saw the hated little man who'd helped them standing at the door of the building, watching them carry Shaboni to safety. Then he disappeared inside. Jack turned back around before he tripped over something, and he and Teal'c met the transport.

Before the vehicle had even stopped Janet was pouring out of the back of it giving her team instructions. "Tell me," was her simple instruction to the colonel. They all boarded the transport that sped towards their transport at the refinery.

"Right after we found her she stopped breathing. I couldn't get any air into her lungs so I rigged an airway. I also think she has a broken left thumb."

Janet regarded him for a moment, "Is any of that your blood, Colonel?"

"What?" He looked down at himself, "No. She was coughing a lot of blood." The transport arrived at the refinery and Jack and Teal'c got off. He took a last look at Shaboni.

"You can see her back at the infirmary," Janet assured him. She closed the door and then they were gone.


	9. Chapter 9

*****

Jack, Carter, Teal'c, and Daniel had waited outside the infirmary for as long as they could. Dr. Fraiser had insisted that they stay outside because there were too many people working in the confined space around Shaboni. After waiting for thirty minutes for her to stabilize, they decided to go and meet with the general. The depth of the fatigue that had settled over Jack was indescribable. Besides the mind-numbing headache he had, the soreness from the accident had been set in his muscles by the cold rain from earlier that evening. He sat down at the table in the briefing room and put his head in his hands.

"How is she?" the general got right down to business.

"She's half dead," Jack said flatly.

Sam took over for her exhausted CO. "She is still unstable. Apparently she has arrested twice since we got her out of the warehouse. Janet doesn't seem to expect her to survive the night," she informed him sadly.

"Well, you did good work getting her out of there. Did I understand correctly that Colonel Mayborne was on the premises at the time of the retrieval?"

"Indeed, he was, General Hammond. He was of great assistance during the rescue of Captain Uziel."

"Well, that _is_ interesting," the general admitted.

"Oh, I'm sure it wasn't altruistic," Jack said bitterly.

"I agree, Colonel. And I don't even want to consider what his price might be. For now let's just be grateful he didn't choose to stand in the way."

"That'd be him that should be grateful," Jack replied ominously.

Daniel stared at him. That deadly cold look had not yet retreated from his eyes, still emanating from behind the weary and fatigue etched across his features.

"So what now, Sir?" Carter asked.

"Now we wait to see if Captain Uziel recovers. If she does, we have been authorized to exchange a degree of information about her husband for any information about Dr. Ben Jahadi's work. The Pentagon feels that in her condition she could be allowed to live out her remaining time at the SGC, and that what she knows about the weapon that she was exposed to could be of benefit for the program. We have confirmed that she officially resigned as an officer with the Mossad over a year ago, so there is no need to inform the Israeli government about her situation. Technically she wasn't even a captain anymore, but an officer of Mossad. She retained her military rank honorarily. They are hoping also to get the name of the Russian chemist she visited before the incident in Prague."

"She mentioned something about an antidote when we were trying to get her out of that hole they stuck her in," Jack noted. Images of the bunker-like room rushed his mind's eye. He ground his teeth together trying to force back the memory of her laying there, nearly naked and drowning…dying...cold...alone...

Carter shook her head, "Sir, I don't see how that is possible. The only known treatment for heavy metal poisoning is chelation treatment. If they got started early enough in the process of her poisoning, it is possible that it might stop the progression of degenerative encephalopathy."

"English, Carter," Jack gave her a cross look.

"Brain damage, Sir. The lab reports from Mercy were inconclusive as to whether or not she had Dimethyl-mercury poisoning. There was definitely something like it, as well as something like beryllium. I think what they were seeing was the combination of Naquada and this SE201b. Still, it is behaving in a similar way to the two known elements in the way it is attacking her body, causing respiratory failure and central nervous system damage."

"So would key-trading help her?" he asked.

"Chelating, Sir, and I'm sure that Janet is going to do that, if she hasn't started already. I really don't know much about that process, but it is standard treatment for heavy metal poisoning. It uses macro-molecules to attach to the metals in her tissues and makes it possible to pull them out of her blood through hemodyalisis."

"Like magnets," his eyes lit up slightly. _'LOVE magnets!'_

"Sort of, yes," Carter smiled at him.

"So if she survives the condition she's in, and Doc Fraiser can use some kind of magnets to remove some of the metals from her body, there's a chance she'll make it?" the colonel reached up and pressed the palm of his hand to his forehead, trying to ease the pain that was building.

"That I don't know, Sir. I guess we'll just have to wait and see," she admitted sorrowfully. She wanted to say something else to elicit that wonderful spark from his eyes. She wanted to give him hope. To make him smile. To make at least something better. It was painfully obvious that this mysterious woman had affected him deeply.

Daniel spoke, "So if she survives the night, and is able to help us with the information we're wanting, just how much are we allowed to tell her?"

The general steepled his fingers diplomatically and looked very steadily at both Daniel and Jack, "That, gentlemen, I will leave up to you." And with that he stood up and dismissed them.

Sam looked at her watch. It read oh-my-God-it's-late o'clock. She was tired and worried, and tired of being worried. As they walked out of the briefing room, she made her way to the corridor that led to their base quarters. She was going to get a shower and put on something clean and comfortable. Then maybe she'd go back to the infirmary. Or maybe she'd just climb in bed and worry about it tomorrow...

Teal'c informed the colonel that it was necessary for him to Kel-no-reem. "Goodnight, big guy." Jack half-heartedly slapped him on the shoulder.

"Good night, O'Neill." Teal'c replied, and then retired to his quarters.

Daniel and Jack went to the infirmary. Daniel poked his head in the door to see how things were going. The amount of activity had lessened considerably. Janet was mulling around Shaboni's bed peering over a chart. "Hey, Janet. How's she doing?" he asked quietly.

"She's stable, at last," Janet said. She put the chart down and walked past him out into the hallway. "She is still in critical condition, but I have some hope she'll survive the night," she said with an exhausted sigh. "Once we were able to get her respiration improved, we were able to start concentrating on removing some of the poisons from her body. I don't have to tell you she was gravely ill when we got here."

"Carter mentioned something about how collation might be helpful," Jack implored hoarsely.

Janet smiled a tired smile, "We're administering chelation therapy, Colonel. But frankly, I think it may be too late for that. The levels of Naquada in her blood and hair indicate she's been poisoned for a long enough time that irreversible brain damage has likely already occurred. We're still trying to determine if there is Dimethyl-mercury in her system. It is a much more toxic variation than environmental mercuries. The beryllium-like compound, however, has caused severe lesions in her lungs and esophagus. She had lost so much blood through her GI tract that we have already replaced eight units, more than half the total blood volume for a normal body. I honestly don't know how she was alive when you found her. She is a real fighter," Janet looked at the colonel warmly.

"Thanks, Janet." Daniel said. A beeping from one of the monitors inside pulled her attention back to her patient. She excused herself and disappeared back inside the infirmary.

Jack, who had been fighting the effects of the last few days, felt his strength begin to ebb. His legs were taking on a distinctly rubber quality that he was largely familiar with from those times when he'd pushed himself well beyond his reasonable limits, well past the point where adrenalin would suffice, and into the place where not even the strength of his will would keep him going. He sagged against the wall.

Daniel commented, "You look like hell, Jack."

"Thanks, Daniel, feel like hell." The pain in his head was escalating to a distracting crescendo.

"You want me to get Janet?"

"No." I

t was, by Jack standards, a very weak refusal. Daniel watched him suddenly turn several ever-paler shades of white. Jack was about to ask for a chair when the floor slipped sideways a little, and he completely lost his equilibrium. He started the long slide down the wall towards a very inviting-looking floor. From far away he heard Daniel call, "JANET!" Then he felt himself caught under the arms before he keeled over sideways. The blaze of pain in his head was a searing light blotting out all vision. He grabbed his head with both hands and held on tightly, certain it was about to fly apart in many very tiny pieces.

"Daniel, help me get him on the stretcher," Janet instructed.

When they lifted him Jack unleashed a scream that frightened them both. He thrashed incoherently. Daniel grabbed his hands and started trying to hold him still.

"JACK!" he tried to yell through the haze of pain and exhaustion.

They wheeled him into the infirmary, and Janet and her team started taking his vitals. He had calmed somewhat and a large lieutenant came to hold his arm down so she could start an IV. Daniel stood back and let them work. Janet administered something in the IV, and Jack became very still.

After a few minutes she said, "Daniel I don't think he's in any real danger. He did have a subdural hematoma a few days ago. After getting whacked in the head again, and all the excitement of the evening, I think he probably just had some fluid pressure build up around the site of the earlier injury. He desperately needs rest and quiet. I'm going to get a CT to be sure, but I really don't think he's in any danger." Her warm brown eyes assured him that what she was saying was true. "Why don't you get some rest, yourself?" She touched his arm gently.

"Not yet. Too much adrenalin, I think." He closed his eyes and scrunched up his brow in an expression of wired-out, exhausted frustration.

Daniel plopped down into a chair and rested his head in his hands. As time in the infirmary stretched out the way it always did and medical routines carried on, Daniel lost himself in thought. Janet came and took Jack for a CT and then brought him back again. She came in and told Daniel the results and left again: they were encouraging...she was optimistic...should rest for the night.... Daniel participated in the routine of it passively, all the while listening to the dialogue between his mind and his heart.

The last three days had felt interminably long. But at the same time he had felt better than he remembered feeling in months. Somewhere within him the grief that had threatened to eat his very soul had given way to the forward momentum of life. Not just of any life, either, of his life with SG1. There was more than Sha're. There was more than Abydos and Apophys and everything that he felt had been ripped from him. He had friends, and they were as important to him as anything he'd ever known. Their importance to him was not the same as the soul-deep love he'd felt for his wife, but that importance still permeated everything about who he was. His work with them mattered. It mattered to him, and it mattered to them. And with that knowledge, he was putting one foot in front of the other and moving on with his life, grief and sorrow in tow, but the momentum of life would not be denied. It was something of a burden lifted.

Now here he was, watching his friend for the second time this week struggle to overcome his injuries. He didn't think Jack was going to die, but to see him in pain and weakened to this point was strange and disjointed for Daniel. Jack was too much like a rock in the stormy sea of his life. A jagged and sharp rock that could bruise the hell out of your shins, but an unmovable and solid figure nonetheless. They would never really speak of it. They had been through enough together to know that words were simply not their way. But Daniel trusted Jack. And Jack, whether he liked it or not, trusted Daniel. Daniel was of the opinion that beneath the crusty colonel exterior that he wore like a comfortable old shirt, he probably liked it quite a lot.

So here they sat. An all too familiar situation. An all too familiar room. But this time there was someone else. A woman who had touched something in Jack. A place that only a woman could touch. Daniel knew of those places. He didn't usually associate their existence with the likes of Jack, but that was mostly because he'd never really thought about it. A man was a man. And nothing cut to the depths of a man like a woman. This woman had wrung something out of Jack's determinedly closed heart. Daniel was curious whether Jack appreciated that or begrudged it. He would probably never know for sure. He could ask, but what would be the point in that?

"Daniel?" Jack's scratchy voice cut through the narrative in his head.

"Hey, Jack. Feeling any better?"

"No....yes...well maybe." He decided on maybe. A good solid maybe.

"You look better."

"Thanks. You don't."

"I'm beat. Was thinking about getting some coffee."

"Why don't you get some sleep instead?"

"I'd really like to stay." Daniel looked over to where Shaboni was lying. She was on a respirator, and there were lines and tubes coming off of her in every direction, but she somehow had the look of a Mid-Eastern doll that someone had been playing hospital with. Her beauty was evident even beneath the stark bruises and sickly color of her skin.

"She really is something," Jack commented hoarsely.

"Yes," Daniel agreed with a half-smile. "Have you decided what you're going to tell her?"

"No. I'll know when the time comes." Jack laid back and closed his eyes. "Daniel?" he said quietly.

"Yeah, Jack?"

"Get out of here. I need some sleep." And Daniel knew exactly what he meant. It was the way with them. Words didn't always mean exactly what they said. Sometimes they were a Trojan horse smuggling an armada of emotions. Then sometimes they meant exactly what they said and absolutely nothing more. This was one of those times.

"Good night, Jack," Daniel said, and walked out quietly.

*****

Jack watched the tendrils of smoke rising from the glowing embers of a hearty wood fire. The undulating colors were calming, mesmerizing. The smell of it encompassed him. He was warm, dry, relaxed, and in no pain. It was not a state he got to experience very often these days. He felt so good it was practically scary. Practically. His reverie was interrupted by the sounds of light footsteps. He looked around in the direction of the approaching steps. The lowness of the firelight to the ground cast light across the bare feet coming into view. The long slender legs and bare feet walking across the carpet became the lower part of a woman and then, as she came fully into the warm circle of light, a whole woman. A whole graceful, sweet, and beautiful woman wearing a white cotton nightgown that ended just above her knees. Light brown hair hung silkily down her back. She came close to where Jack was lying and sat down on her knees.

"Are you resting?" she asked.

"I am. It feels wonderful. I haven't felt this relaxed in a lifetime."

"Are you happy?" she cocked her head to the side, looking at him intently.

"I think so," he smiled softly. "Are you?"

"You never want to allow yourself a moment's happiness, Jack. You don't think you deserve it." She did not answer him. He didn't know the answer so he could not provide it for himself here.

"And what do you think?" It wasn't as bitter a question as it once would have been.

"I always wanted you to be happy. Our death came the day I knew that I could not affect peace in your life. That you wouldn't allow it, especially not from me." She leaned to the side resting her weight on her arm and stretching her long legs out to the side. Her hair fell over a graceful shoulder. The firelight shimmered against her skin.

"I know it is too late for this, Sarah, but I'm sorry." He looked up at her with his dark brown eyes filled with sincerity.

"I always knew. You carried enough apology around for ten men," she smiled gently. "I never needed those words."

"What did you need?"

"I needed you. When Charlie died, I lost you both."

Then there was a lingering silence. The next thing was not something he wanted to permit to be spoken. But this wasn't really speaking it, was it? "And I lost us all." He looked at the fire and said it so quietly someone trying to listen would have had to lean close to hear it. But since she wasn't really there, and wasn't really listening, she heard him just fine.

"And now you've found your way." Sarah pushed herself to her knees. "Don't miss this chance, Jack." She reached out and ran her hands through his hair softly. "I like the gray."

"I miss you." He reached up to take her hand while it was still close.

"No, you don't." Her hand slipped right through his as if she were a ghost.

He watched as she faded like the smoke from the fire. He spoke to the ghost of her, "I must have loved you."


	10. Chapter 10

*****

Voices from far off were intruding on his nice warm place. He rolled over and tried to cover his ears to block them out. It didn't work. Grumpily he stuffed the pillow over his head.

The movement caught the attention of one of the nurses attending another patient. She quietly stepped away and informed Dr. Fraiser that he'd woken up.

"Good morning, Colonel!" the doctor piped cheerfully.

"Umph," was the muffled reply.

Dr. Fraiser wrapped a blood pressure cuff around his arm and pressed a button on the monitor to get a reading. He pulled his head out from under the pillow and squinted at the light.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Head hurts less," he noticed. She shined a light in his eyes, and he squinted and pulled back giving her a very annoyed look.

"Yesterday afternoon the symptoms of intracranial pressure subsided," she informed him.

"Yesterday afternoon?" He started to push himself up.

"Uh uh uh." She gently pushed him back to the bed. "Not yet. I want to do a quick examination, and then you're going to eat."

"How long have I been here?"

"About thirty hours," Daniel said as he popped in the room.

"What did you do, drug me?" he demanded of Janet.

"Didn't have to. You were completely exhausted, and you were still suffering from fluid build-up around the hematoma," Janet explained.

"How are you feeling?" Daniel asked him.

"Actually, I feel okay. Except for the tape worm I seemed to have developed." He rubbed at his stomach feeling the emptiness.

"Actually, I knew you'd be hungry so I called Sam. She's bringing you some breakfast from the commissary," Daniel told him.

Jack looked around and didn't see what he was looking for. He looked at Daniel for the news he knew must be coming. Daniel recognized the question in his eyes.

"She's in an isolation room," he explained.

Jack tried not to let the relief he felt show, but he felt certain he'd done a miserable job.

Janet elaborated, "She began running a pretty high fever, and I wanted to protect her immune system from any more stress. That, and with teams returning yesterday, she didn't need the commotion."

Jack nodded. He was amazed at how much better he was feeling. He decided he'd go check on her after he ate.

Sam appeared with a tray of assorted breakfast foods for him. "I didn't know what you'd be hungry for, so I grabbed some of everything." She set the tray in front of him. It was piled with pastries and cereal and a plate of hot food and some fruit. There was juice and milk and, ah there it was: coffee. Jack dug in and started refueling.

Janet finished with her notations to his chart and said, "When you're done you are free to go. I don't think you need to stay here for any reason. Just please, this time, take it easy." She shot an accusatory look at Daniel, who squinted and shrugged a wordless Daniel-esque apology.

"I brought you some stuff." Daniel reached down and retrieved a bag from the floor.

"How is she, Daniel?" Jack asked with a dark expression.

"She's not so good, Jack." He pushed his glasses up on his nose in a self-conscious gesture. "But last time I checked on her she was conscious. Sam sat with her for about an hour yesterday and told her about the SGC. No one has told her about her husband, though. I assumed you would want to be the one..." His voice trailed off. "I just wanted to bring you this." He set the bag in a chair next to Jack's bed. "I've got to get back to my office. SG4 brought something back they want translated yesterday. Good to see you're feeling better." He smiled ever so slightly, ducked his head, and left the room. Off to work. Life moving forward; carrying Daniel Jackson with it.

"So how about you Carter? What kind of work do you have planned to keep you away from the rest of your vacation?" Jack asked with a mouthful of eggs.

Major Carter grinned at him widely, "We have some information about the element that was being used to fuel the weapon Dr. Tolla Ben Jahadi was developing, SE201b. I was going to go to my lab and formulate some models so I can run some simulations. It appears that when combined with other heavy metals, SE201b has a great deal of potential for strengthening known compounds. Its use as a component in fabrication applications is promising."

"Sounds good. You go make models." He took a large swig of his coffee.

She beamed at him, "It really is good to see you feeling better, Sir," and she bounced away excited about the prospect of her new science experiment.

Jack finished up his breakfast and decided to take a shower. He reached for the bag Daniel had brought him and riffled through it to see what his options were: fatigues, undershirt, clean underwear and socks, a shaving kit, a toothbrush, his wallet, keys, and a CD. He pulled it out and looked at it. He didn't have to look to know what it was, but something about holding the weight of it in his hand felt comforting. Was Daniel aware of the fact that Shaboni had liked it? Or was there some other message here? Didn't matter. He decided he'd take it to her.

He went to the shower and started getting cleaned up. He had tape over an IV site on his left hand. He pulled it off and admired the bluish bruise that was spreading around the pinpoint hole in his hand. He undressed and turned on the shower. He set the shaving kit on the sink and caught sight of himself in the mirror. The bruises under his eyes looked like a light version of the paint football players wore to protect themselves from the glare of the sun. His nose, however, looked considerably better. He pushed at it gently with his fingers. It didn't hurt much at all. He smiled as he remembered Shaboni slamming her hand into his face. If she'd been awake at the time she could have killed him with that little maneuver. Knowing that she had been Sayeret, Shaldag in particular, he knew she must be a fearsome soldier. And the Mossad was known for their ninja-like assassins. He would have liked to have known her when she was healthy and strong.

"Don't miss this chance." Sarah's words came back to him. Or had they really been his words?

He went to the isolation room. She looked fragile, but better. He sat down on a stool next to her bed. She had been taken off the respirator and the tracheotomy tube had been removed, a sterile white covering over the incision. She was sleeping. Her breathing was so much clearer and easier that he found it difficult to believe she'd been practically dead only a day ago. _'Two days.'_ He reminded himself.

She was stirring.

"Hey, there," he said gently.

"Jack," she smiled weakly. "Daniel said you were not feeling well."

"Ah, I'm fine. Just needed some serious sleep."

"I have met with Major Carter and Teal'c. They are your team." It was one of those questions.

"Yep. Carter, Teal'c and Daniel. They're a great team," he said proudly.

"They have a very good leader." Her gray eyes were sparkling. "Major Carter tells me everything about what you do. That the compounds Tolla was working with were coming from other worlds, just like he said. That people like you brought them here."

"Yeah, well, I have very little control over what happens to the stuff I bring back," Jack said apologetically.

"Do not be misunderstanding me, Jack. It is good what you are doing. It is so much bigger than the petty fighting that my country has always known. It is so much more important than anything we have ever been doing." She spoke softly, but candidly. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she looked as if she was going back to sleep.

Jack sat there just staring. For a very long time he watched her. He tried to draw in to his memory the look of her dark brown hair against the stark white of the pillow. He doubted he would remember. Something so sweet was fluid, always motion. He ached inside. But this time he would allow the ache. He wouldn't suppress it. He would let it burn. Because the alternative would be to suppress all his feelings again, especially those having to do with this strange and beautiful creature lying still and slipping from him before he even really knew her and all too quickly. Maybe it wasn't love, but whatever it was, it was alive. He'd lived the alternative too long, and even though it was painful, alive was better than not.

Jack got up and went to his office. He retrieved his small personal stereo that he kept in there for nights when he had to stay at the base. He'd become accustomed to running something like the TV or stereo to subdue the busy thoughts that would threaten him when night fell. He took the stereo to the isolation room and plugged it in, placing the CD Daniel had brought in his bag in the player. He turned the volume down low and let the music play. Shaboni smiled a faint smile that told Jack she wasn't actually asleep, though probably heavily drugged with pain medication. They listened to the music together. Jack took her uninjured hand in his and held it gently. They sat together like that for the whole thing, just letting the music play.

After the music had stopped, Jack continued to sit quietly with her. Eventually she stirred and opened her eyes. "That was quite wonderful," she commented.

"I thought so," he agreed. Then his face turned hard and he decided now was the time.

"I have some information for you about your husband," Jack started.

She lay there watching him levelly. She would not ask. She would not become distraught. He could see that the information he had for her would simply bring her journey to its end. He wondered what that would mean for her spirit. Would she continue to fight once she knew it all?

"The people who took you were the same people who hired him. He was working on the same project that Ben Jahadi was working on; though I'm pretty sure he didn't know it. He disappeared six months after coming to the United States. The official report is that he died in a lab accident. I believe that the same guys who took you were directly responsible for his death, possibly because he was trying to leave to come home. But I'm not sure. All of the chemists who were hired to work on the same project disappeared about the same time."

Her eyes looked dark. Shaboni had been assigned to one of the most secretive units of the Sayeret and then recruited by the Mossad. She had lived a life of intense secrecy. It was more than likely that her personnel file was as classified as his was. Soldiers who operated in the highly secretive world of black ops and intelligence learned to compartmentalize. They were exceedingly good at it. But there were times when the drive for retribution overran programming. Jack would have bet money that this was one of those moments for Shaboni. Would she want to seek to avenge her husband's death now that she knew who was responsible?

"We were ambushed in Prague," she told him. "Two men had followed us to our dinner and then they followed us back to Tolla's lab. He was believing that Emil had been working on the same project as he. That the chemical he was being given to develop into a weapon would be to poison selected targets. He was to be making a delivery system that could be sequenced to specific DNA. He was telling me the delivery system was for DNA of something that was not human, but while he had been able to construct the bomb he was not yet able to be perfecting the targeted delivery system. I laughed at him, Jack. I was thinking he was saying that Emil was mixed up in alien conspiracy. He had been telling me earlier that there was metaloid, he called it Naquada. If he was to put this Naquada together with the other substance it would attack the human body like more common metals, except the combination of the two would somehow protect the brain so that you would know what was happening to you as you would waste away. The men had shot him, but he connected a timer to an explosive charge he had hidden under a table before he died. One of the agents tried to take the weapon, but I was able to stop him. I miscalculated his intentions, and when I was close to him he opened the compartment containing the two substances. He threw them in my face. They got in my mouth and I was breathing and swallowing them. The other man got away, and I was able to be getting to the street when the lab was destroyed." She stopped for a moment, and closed her eyes tightly against pain. Her breath came in quick short gasps.

"Shaboni we can talk more later." Jack started to get up and let her rest. She shot her hand out and grabbed his arm.

"No, we can not." She looked at him severely, "I have been talking with Doctor Fraiser. There is no more later."

Jack sank back down onto the stool. He looked at the floor. "Keep talking," he said finally.

"Please tell the doctor that I am needing more pain medication, first." He hopped up and opened the door to the room.

"HEY! Need some help in here!" he yelled down the corridor. Someone on the medical staff came running in.

"Yes, Sir?"

"She needs some more morphine." The medic went to her chart and flipped a few pages. Jack shifted his weight from one foot to the other impatiently. "Did I stutter?" he asked irritated.

"Sir, I just needed to check her orders." He put the chart down and went for the medication. He reappeared momentarily with a syringe and pushed the medication into her IV. She sighed lightly with relief as the pain receded.

"Sit down, Jack. There is more I must tell you."


	11. Chapter 11

*****

"So they still have some of this new element?" General Hammond asked the colonel. They were sitting at the briefing table. Jack was giving them his report of all the things Shaboni had told him.

"As far as she knows they do. After what we told her she came to the conclusion that the NID is overseeing research on an anti-Goa'uld biological weapon. But I think someone had more nefarious plans. They exposed her intentionally to the mixture of those two metals, and seemed intent on finding out what they could about its effects on her and developing a counteragent."

"Yes, and you don't need a counteragent if the chemicals are not dangerous to humans," Daniel added.

"Exactly," Jack raised his hand in a 'there-you-go' gesture.

"I have spoken with the Pentagon about the fact that NID was posing as the SGC to recruit foreign nationals. I've been assured that the parties responsible will be dealt with," Hammond informed them.

"It's a little late for that," Jack pointed out.

"Yes, Colonel, I'm aware of that. But there is nothing further we can do about it." The general closed the notebook he had in front of him. "How is Captain Uziel?"

"Sleeping. She is in a lot of pain."

"Sir, have we even considered trying to call the Tok'ra?" Major Carter finally brought it up.

"We attempted to contact them yesterday, Major. They could spare no one," the general explained apologetically.

"So we just quit trying and watch her die?" Daniel griped.

"We are out of options," Hammond shrugged his shoulders. Just then the phone on the wall behind him rang. He reached out and answered it, "General Hammond." His face gave nothing away. But when he looked suddenly at Jack they knew something was up.

Jack's stomach did a little flip. It must be Shaboni. Teal'c sat unmoving, and Sam and Daniel looked at each other.

Finally he said, "Send him in," and then he hung up the phone.

"It would seem that there may be one remaining option," the general said and inclined his head toward the door to the briefing room. He began to stand and they all followed suit. Suddenly Colonel Mayborne appeared from around the corner.

"Hello, Harry," Jack said with suspicion dripping from his voice.

"Jack, General, everyone," he greeted them.

"So Colonel Mayborne, I'm told you have something for us?" The general sat down indicating that everyone else should do the same.

"Yes. I do." He set a box on the table and left it there as if its presence should be self-explanatory.

"Well...what...is...it? Jack said slowly enunciating each word.

"It is all that remains of Dr. Tolla Ben Jahadi's work." He reached over and opened the box pulling two vials out and setting one on the table. Holding up the other he said, "This is the only remaining quantity of Sub Element 201 beta on the planet." He set it down and picked up the other vial offering it to Jack. "And this is the compound that he formulated to counteract the effects of his weapon on humans. I am told that is one dose of counteragent."

They all, even Teal'c, adopted similar expressions of slightly open mouths and large round eyes.

"Mayborne, if this doesn't work I'm going to kill you with my bare hands." Jack took the vial from him.

"I would expect nothing less," Mayborne said genially.

"Colonel, why don't you take that to Dr. Fraiser," General Hammond dismissed Jack, who gave one last look of warning to Mayborne and then strode swiftly from the room.

Daniel eyed Mayborne moodily. Their last encounter had been the Tollan incident, and Daniel had no more love for the man than anyone else in the SGC.

"Major Carter, I should think you would be eager to get your hands on this." The colonel tapped the top of the remaining vial.

"As much as I might want it, Colonel, I have a sneaking suspicion that it would come at too high a price," she responded flatly.

"I agree. What exactly is it you want from us?" Daniel asked.

"I would like to have been able to come in here demanding something in return for helping the Mossad woman. But the fact of the matter is that you don't have anything I want. Right now." He almost looked apologetic.

"Well, then Colonel, if that is the case, then I thank you for your generosity, and I'll ask you to be going." The general had that look where he sucked his cheeks in. It was a look he got when dealing with those he despised. He despised the politics he'd been forced to play at the hands of the NID. And he knew that this man was among the worst that he'd ever had to deal with. It wasn't because Mayborne had a political agenda. No, General Hammond didn't think that there was much that was political about Harry Mayborne. But he did have an agenda and he was the type who would do anything to achieve it. His position within the intelligence community coupled with his agenda made him dangerous. But one thing he could not ignore: Colonel Harry Mayborne had helped them with this situation. He may literally be saving the day with this counter agent. He wanted to give him credit for that, but all his years of training and experience practically screamed that giving him credit for anything good was a serious error in judgment.

Teal'c, who'd been thinking in similar terms, decided to communicate his thoughts on the matter. He stood up and walked behind the colonel and said in a low and even tone, "Your assistance is most appreciated. Shall I show you to the elevator?"

Mayborne got the hint. He hadn't expected it to go differently. He hadn't even hoped it would. It was nice that you could predict some things in this universe. It had symmetry. He stood up and said, "No, thank you Teal'c, I know the way." Then he nodded his head at each of them, "General, Major, Doctor," and walked out.

*****

Things were starting to feel normal again. But it was a new kind of normal. Carter had been holed up in her lab experimenting with the new metal element. Daniel had been routinely busy with the rocks _'Artifacts, Jack.'_, rubbings, and texts that other teams loved to bring him. Teal'c had been participating in training some of the younger SG team members in combat techniques. Teams came, teams went. Their vacation was long since over, but SG1 had been given a little extra time off from taking a mission so that the colonel could properly recover from the accident.

The counter agent that Mayborne had brought them had turned out to be helpful. Shaboni still had months of recuperation before her strength and vitality would fully return, if it ever would. But she was alive. The question of what to do with her came up, was dealt with, and put to rest pretty quickly. It would require special dispensation from the Pentagon, but if she managed to fully recover from the poisoning she would be awarded a consultant's position with the SGC. Her extensive military training and experience in intelligence made her valuable. Her knowledge of the Stargate program made her dangerous. But when confronted with the evidence of the NID's actions, the Pentagon relented and allowed General Hammond to extend the offer. She had not said no, but she had not said yes either. She had decided, instead, to take some time to fully recover from her ordeal and _'find her path.'_ She agreed to give them an answer in a month's time.

"Find your path?" Jack had said making a face.

She laughed at him as she gathered the few things they'd retrieved from her hotel and brought to the SGC. "It sounds foolish to you." A question.

"Well, no...not foolish." He paused. "Okay, maybe a little."

She smiled brilliantly. He was only just beginning to see the depth of that brilliance as she regained her strength. She stopped and commented, "It is only because you have already found yours that it sounds foolish."

"Actually, I think it sounds cliché," he explained.

"Of course it is." She resumed her packing with one hand. She still had a cast on her left hand immobilizing her thumb and wrist. "It would not be cliché if it were not true. I have always done one thing. I have always been a soldier. Fighting for my country was all that I knew. Things are not as they were, Jack. I am not who I was before. I do not know what is before me. But I want to understand more about the possibilities before I decide to accept being here. I do not know if this is where I am belonging."

"So do you have any idea where you are going to go?"

"I really do not yet know. I thought I would be seeing Minnesota." She looked at him sideways. "I heard that the fishing there is good."

Jack felt like laughing fleetingly, but this was not such a funny moment after all. The smile in his eyes died out a little. He'd not really gotten the chance to have much time with her. He wanted something more. But realistically he knew that was a ridiculous idea. At least he wasn't going to deny to himself that he'd felt something. It might suck that she was leaving, but in the time that she'd been near him she had changed him. For the better. He thought that because of her he just might be able to experience joy again, someday anyway. He held up a little package that he'd wrapped for her.

"You brought me a present," she asked.

"Sort of." He handed it to her. She raised an eyebrow at him in askance. "Go ahead." He waved at the package.

She tore it open and found a copy of the CD that had started the whole string of events that had led to this moment.

"Thank you, Jack. This is good music." She grinned so sweetly it pierced him.

He thought briefly to tell her of the song, Ghost Story, and how he'd heard it again because she was with him. He wanted to tell her that her being there made him hear it all the way through. That the end of the song talked about the release he'd so desperately sought from the perpetual nightly trial. He wanted to tell her that, because of her, he'd finally been able to feel the love he'd had for his wife and begin to say goodbye. That he had begun to do something more than survive at last. But he didn't say any of those things.

What he said was, "yeah, it's one of my favorites."

_Fin_


End file.
